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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: Can you please comment on the payout ratios and free cash flow of these companies. As they are both growing and acquiring other companies, I thought the payout ratio was low. How would you rate their capital allocation over the last few years (cash flow, debt vs issuing new shares) ? Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Pierre on December 31, 2018
Q: I would appreciate if I can have payout ratios for NFI, PBH, SIS, CGX. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to Ryan, Peter and excellent team.
Read Answer Asked by Rajendra on December 27, 2018
Q: Good morning 5i,
I should say right away, thanks very much for the heads up on Jnj. I took your advice and got out in the summer!
but, I unfortunatly do have some that are still in loss territory. I am worried that these are probably down at their lowest point and that there may be a rally in the New Year that I would miss if I sell for tax loss.

I wonder what your thoughts are on that? Also, if you think that there isn't much of a chance of them coming back soon, how would you rate them as a sell, ie which one most likely to stay down for 30 days?
thanks
Read Answer Asked by joseph on December 20, 2018
Q: Morning guys:
I own the these 3 I’m down significantly with all three. All three of these have solid management teams and I have confidence to hold and dollar cost average for the long haul. Is it time to add at current prices.
Thanks
Mark.
Read Answer Asked by Mark on December 20, 2018
Q: I have capital gains in which I would like now to sell one stock in which I have a loss and can use against my capital gain. Of the stocks listed, LNR, MX, NFI, PBH, TOY would you sell? I do have the intention to buy after the 30 waiting day period.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked on December 20, 2018
Q: The market is again very vicious today,hitting all,including the above 5 darlings (& RAY.A)of 5I,Any reasons? Buy/add or hold or sell.Please rank them starting with best for buy Txs for u usual great services & views
Read Answer Asked by Peter on December 18, 2018
Q: An analyst from Citi has warned that “debt service ratios for non-financial firms” in Canada are very high, and a crisis is possible within a year. Is it safe to assume that none of the companies you recommend would have any trouble servicing their debt (TSGI, SIS, PBH, COV, TOY, etc)? Do any prominent names come to mind which might be at risk? Thanks for your thoughts.
Read Answer Asked by Brian on December 17, 2018
Q: Charge as many credits as you see fit...at least 4...got lots. Annually, I follow the O'Shaughnessy system and go through the tedious process of ranking over 90 stocks into deciles. I am screening for stocks that are good value, less volatile and have a good + growing dividend. For value, I use P/E, P/B, P/CF, P/S. For volatility, I use Beta. For dividends, this year I have added 5 year growth % into the process. The resultant summary number is the cumulative of the 7 metrics, with roughly 60% value, 15% volatility and 25% dividend weighting. I then marry this up with a technical screening, using charts with a 200 mda, looking for a rising vs rangebound vs declining chart.

Question 1 = your thoughts on my screening system? I thought of adding in other metrics, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. Factors such as payout % and ROE can always be a looked at in the next phase. Should I drop any of the metrics if they are redundant?

Most of the stocks screened as expected. However, 3 stocks didn't screen well at all and I am trying to figure out why. It may be that my population of stocks is skewed to value stocks, so if any of the other 3 stocks had growth or REIT characteristics, then they might be seen as outliers.

Question 2 = CSH's fundamentals screened horribly = 10th decile. Could it be that REITs may screen out differently, due to their very nature?

Question 3 =Both PBH and WSP screened poorly = 8th decile. Could it be their fundamental metrics exhibit more growth characteristics?

Question 4 = Reading past 5iR questions on these 3 stocks leads me to believe you are still strongly in favor of all 3. Please confirm.

Thanks...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on December 12, 2018
Q: I have significant losses on above names in my TFSA (Loss, Allocation, My Avg Price):
TSGI -49.20% , 7.10% , $49.48
WCP -47.83% , 1.70%, $. 8.70
WEF - 30.85% , 2.3 % , $. 2.62
NFI. -30.30% , 2.8 % , $. 51.81
PBH. -28.23% , 5.0% , $11.46
Other names in TFSA well diversified based on 5i Balanced portfolio with losses under 10% and some with gains.
Would you recommend buy to average down or any other changes.

Thanks in advance for your valuable advice
Read Answer Asked by Hali on December 05, 2018
Q: With the recent market correction, I have several stocks that are down quite significantly and others that stayed flat or went up a little. This involves that the weightings changed quite a bit for some stocks. I know 5i isn't a big fan of averaging down, but in such context what would be your advice? I have the followings (%loss, weight) :
SIS (-19%, 4%)
PHO(-41%, 1.7%)
KXS(-10%, 3.3%)
NFI(-32%, 2.6%)
PBH(-28%, 3.4%)
TOY(-23%, 2.5%)
MX(-22%, 3.1%)
I currently have 13% cash and would consider reducing it to 7-8%. My sectors are well diversified. Which of the above would be your favorites today for a position increase?

Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Julien on December 03, 2018
Q: Hi guys
I have held Saputo for a very long time and done very well on it and appreciate its relative stability. However it has not done much the last few years except gradually trend lower, plus it would appear the milk/cheese market is always affected by trade/tariff issues out of control of the company. I have to say when I listen to Lino Saputo on conference calls he is very impressive how he knows the most intricate details about what drives his operations. What do you think would be a catalyst for Saputo to move forward in the next few years. A 2nd question relates to Premium Brands and given its drop in price over the last while would it make sense to sell my Saputo and bus Premium Brands as a replacement. I always worry that with a loss of a big contract like Starbucks the stock price might just fall away and that has kept me out of it, but of course they have continued to do well.

Thanks

Stuart
Read Answer Asked by Stuart on December 03, 2018
Q: RRSP vs TFSA vs non-registered accounts. Sector balancing aside, what would be your top 3 picks for each type of account? Incredible site, thanks for all your work.
Read Answer Asked by Stan on November 23, 2018
Q: I would like to top up these positions and trim them back in the future (12-24months?)

Are there any names on the list I should avoid or expect a longer recovery for?

Always appreciate your wisdom.
Read Answer Asked by David on November 23, 2018