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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: Acuity Ads down along with the market. Very small cap I can understand why.
There sales in my opinion are not virus or oil related and I see this dip as a buying opportunity. Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Also, in a prolonged economic downturn do they have the balance sheet capacity to "weather the storm".
Thanks
John
Read Answer Asked by John on March 09, 2020
Q: I have a question about Avalara after reviewing its Annual Report on line on its website. . The audit notes a Material Weakness in Internal Controls over Financial Reporting on page 70 - 71 as follows - "The Company has a material weakness as it does not have adequate controls to effectively design, implement, and operate process-level and information technology controls to sufficiently mitigate risks of material misstatement associated with certain complex business processes and changes in those processes or applicable accounting standards."
On page 68 - 69 is another note by the auditors to the Board on what they call "A Critical Audit Matter" regarding the audit of company revenues as follows - "The processing and recording of revenue, including interfaces between systems and databases, is both manual and automated, and therefore the Company uses a complex set of procedures and systems to generate complete and accurate data to process and record its revenue transactions." As a result much time was spent on verification and they had to bring in professionals with expertise in data analytics to assist with the audit.
I know Avalara is a young company, but should such warnings give me reason to not invest at this time?
Read Answer Asked by Dave on March 09, 2020
Q: Hello Peter and Co,
My 20 year old grandson has opened a TFSA with $22000 in cash, and is asking for advice how to start investing. Our suggestion is that he put a fairly large amount into an index fund ETF, such as VFV, and then buy several individual stocks with the rest. They would be small positions (~$2500 per stock) but a good way for him to start learning, and with markets down, the timing seems quite fortuitous.
He is considering the following:
100 shares VFV: ~$7500
40 shares GSY: ~$2500
35 shares BEP.UN: ~$2500
1 share AMZN: ~$2500 (CAD)
7 shares NVDA: ~$2500 (CAD)
200 shares VET: ~$2500
-------------------------------
TOTAL: ~$20000

We had also suggested CSU, SHOP, KXS, PKI, TTD, GOOG, AAPL, ROKU, FB

What do you think of the above approach, and what changes might you suggest? I realize VET stands out as quite risky, but should probably do well long term.
Are there any sectors or stocks or ETF that you would suggest adding/replacing? Obviously he has a multi-decade time horizon.
Thanks for your sage advice!
Read Answer Asked by Ed on March 09, 2020
Q: Lspd, Engh, Otex and Dsg, which one is faster growth and which one is the cheapest , which one you like it better?
Many thanks
Read Answer Asked by Hue on March 05, 2020
Q: I noticed a number of questions recently concerning STC and I thought your members may be interested in the response I received when I asked my Hedge Fund (who follow the stock closely and are bullish) about the recent results:

We thought the STC quarter was strong. Gross profits were up 20% YoY and cash earnings were up 89% YoY. They lowered revenue guidance but increased EBITDA guidance.
Recurring revenue (service business) as a % of revenue

20% in 2018

30+% in 2019

40-50% in 2020

*Margins have followed suite

The conference call was very informative and the focus continues to be growing recurring revenues and profits

Feel free to publish this if you think it is of value.

Cheers
Scott
Read Answer Asked by Scott on March 04, 2020
Q: Could I have your outlook on CGI for a 2 year timeframe please.

I was planning to sell the position in a couple of years when I am retired and in a lower tax bracket. I am now wondering if I should take the tax hit, and buy something with a dividend and more growth like MSFT.

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Greg on March 03, 2020
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