Investment Q&A

Q: Hi 5I team. Can you please tell me if companies in general have been increasing their dividend payout ratios? Where might a little guy like me find this information? Benjamin Graham had written something like "Never buy a companies stock only for its dividend." Probably pertaining to value traps but in this environment many people are being forced to do this. This makes me worry about some of the higher debt levels and earnings decreases perhaps many companies that are increasing their dividends are chasing investors in hopes of higher stock prices. I realize every company has a different story but market sentiment pushes everything in the same direction irrelevant of what is happening individually. Thank you
J

Q: Recently I overheard a retired investment advisor talking at a luncheon I attended. He said that since the liberals were spending so much lately that they will be soon looking for ways to increase government income. His feeling was in increase (up to 75%)in capital gains tax. His suggestion was to sell anything which had large gains now. This kind of concerns me as I hold shares in firms like Bell and others which I have had for over 30 years. Thank you for your thoughts on this. I read all the questions people submit and feel I am learning a lot from them
Ken Beatty

Q: Hi Peter;
I am looking to purchase two energy stocks that have a majority of their portfolio in natural gas, a medium and a large cap. Would Birchcliff Energy (BIR) and VII Seven Gen do the trick? If not, which ones would you recommend?
Thanks,
Ron

Q: How do you use trend analysis to determine if a stock is trading at a good entry point? For example, WPK is trading at $46.52 as I write. Its 10 year trend line value using linear regression is $36, but the 1 year comparison is $49. Is WPK trading above or below its trend line ie based on 1 years trading it appears under valued, but using the 10 year value it appears currently over priced. Thank you.

Q: The new version of rate re-set Preferreds with a re-set floor seems to have found favour with investors. A quick survey of such recent issues finds them all trading in excess of $25.00 par issue price.
What are your general thoughts?
Can we expect all future issues to include this floor feature?
Might future isssuances not be quite as generous given the apparent demand?
While not true fixed income - they now seem closer(?) ; and yields are attractive.
Considerations / Thoughts?

Thank-you

Q: I have been dabbling with momentum investing recently after reading endorsements of a 70% value 30% momentum approach. I haven't been able to find too many concrete details on momentum process, mostly vagaries. So far, I have been keeping things simple - buying names with reasonably good fundamentals and strong momentum over the last 6 or so months and riding the momentum until 10 day SMA crosses below 30 SMA. The results have been mixed so far, I reckon I've come out about even. Does this approach seem more or less sound based on your experience? Are there other details you might include in the process (i.e. absolute loss limit in addition to SMA trigger)? Finally, how to stick to the process when markets are in a down trend (i.e. very few stocks have good performance in last 6 months) -- I assume it's important to stick with the process to catch momentum when it turns.

Q: I'm looking at my big losers from the growth portfolio: AVO, BOS, CXR, DHX.B, DRT, IT, PEO, & PUR and would like your perspective whether to just take the losses and move on, or why should it still be held.
I'd also like similar comments with EFN and XTC (even though I've already gotten out of them).
Thanks!

Q: Please let me know your general theory on the following. Assuming one believes in getting dividend ( predominant ) income, interest income and capital gains what are your thoughts in allotting these between a TFSA, RRSP and regular margin account. Assume that RRSP and TFSA are maxed out contribution wise.

Thanks

Paul

Q: In one of your answers today you said, "In Ontario, if dividends are you ONLY source of income, you can receive about $58,000 completely tax-free if you just have Canadian dividend income." Can you please provide a source that would confirm this? (A link would be appreciated.) I looked at the tables on www.taxtips.ca, and it appears the threshold is $45,282.

Q: Hi Peter and Team!! My investment adviser is really enthusiastic about Canadian Equity Notes. She has a Bank note based on the TSX 60 that pays 4.5% . It has a 45% downside and is callable as soon as the market is up 10%. ( same type of investment as CBL9436.) I am a little leery and have a few questions. 1) Are these good investments. 2) what are the potential risks 3) because these sound too good to be true, how do the banks make their money? What's the catch. She claims that these are as good as fixed income with minimal risk and got a little upset when I seemed not to be so keen on them. Thanks for your insight, Cheers, Tamara
P

Q: Hope this falls within the scope of your Q & A:

Retired couple, defined pension plan providing coverage for living expenses. Also good real estate assets, including rental property.

Looking for additional income to "indulge" .... possibly even buy that little sports car that I wish I had bought 40 years ago :) ...

Have $500K in RIF. Own most of all your portfolios and a number of other stocks.
Objective to re-structure my portfolio so that it reflects: 50% Income, 30% Balanced and 20% Growth.
I would appreciate your top suggestions from each of your portfolios to achieve this target. The intention is to then review and edit our overall portfolios based on this input.

Thanks so much for your help.

Q: Losing money on BTE in a regitered account. Can i buy buy in and out and keep averaging down always maintaining my original position without waiting the 30 day period. Thank You Vinny

Q: I AM RE-SENDING. SOMEHOW MY QUESTIONS WAS NOT SENT. IF YOU DID RECEIVE THE ORIGINAL MY APOLOGIES.

Hello Peter and team,

I am considering adding to non-reg. acct. these preferred issues: BEP.PR.I; PPL.PR.M; TRP.PR.J; NA.PR.X for a steady predictable income for 5+ years. It is my understanding that these all have a minimum rate reset except NA which GOC yield + 4.90%. First could you rate these in terms of credit risk with the understanding that they all face the same interest rate risks going forward). Second, BEP.PR.I is a limited partnership issue and its distributions will be a mix of ordinary income, Canadian dividends and return of capital so would this be better held in a RRSP or are there any other complications here? Third, can you advise if these preferred stocks qualify as low credit risk overall, or are there others you would choose that would qualify as better credit risk while providing similar yields with a fixed rate reset feature and downward protection. If so could you suggest 4 or 5 better alternatives and advise why you feel they would be viewed as superior. Finally, am I correct in assuming that the minimum rate reset feature provides more downward protection should interest rates in fact rise 4 to 5 years from now.

Thanks for your great advice.

Joseph

Q: Peter and Ryan and Co.:
Just wanted to say thank you for your unique and excellent service. Between reading the questions and answers, to the great reports, to the model portfolios, it's been and continues to be an amazing education for me and I'm sure many others, in the world of investing.
Having the benefit of your 20+ years of knowledge and experience is pure gold! So thanks again for all you do. cheers

Q: Could you please provide the names of five companies that could be of interest now to a momentum investor?

Thank you, Peter

Q: Hi,

I have a small (100% in oil and gas) portfolio and am 34 years of age. My investment strategy involves riding the oil and gas recovery in the short term (until early 2017). From this point I would like to reconfigure into a diversified portfolio. My question is, when does a middle/not aggressive/not cautious/average person implement your different types of portfolios? I gather that duration until you require the investment is of most importance with risk tolerance playing an equal part of the equation. But what if neither risk adversity or time are an issue? Should I be 100% positioned towards the growth portfolio?

What are some general rules of thumbs and what are some 'ballpark' milestones for someone who is investing for retirement? I'm after a generic answer that looks something like until:
age 40 100% growth,
until age 50 100% balanced,
then by age 60 100% income.

Q: Apologies in advance for a long-ish question. A good friend's $800K portfolio is wildly out of whack diversity-wise courtesy of a recently deposed financial advisor who had him 60% in banks. The friend has entrusted me to right the ship. My philosophy, very successful for me, is to be fully invested and widely diversified, almost 100% in Canada (not impossible to do contrary to prevailing wisdom), with an emphasis on dividends and growth at a reasonable price.

I have set the following personalized sector percentages:

Banks - 20%
Other financial - 5%
Telcos - 8%
Utilities/Pipes - 15%
Energy - 14%
REITs - 12%
Healthcare - 6%
Tech - 6%
Consumer Discretionary - 10%
Industrials - 4%

I am trimming his banks from 60% to 20% which frees up funds to purchase. About 1/3 of what he has is worth keeping. For the other 2/3 would love your input on the overall approach, the following choices and the weights:

Telcos: BCE and T, 4% each
Utilities/Pipes: IPL, PPL, BEP, FTS,NPI, 3% each
Financial: FC and MSI, 2.5% each
Healthcare: DR and CRH 2% each
Tech: KXS, NVDA and SYZ 2% each
Consumer (my definition): PBH, RPI.UN, BYD.UN,CGX, ADW.A, 2% each
Industrials: EIF, CHR, NFI, 1.3% each

REITS still need to be worked on and I'm keeping his current energy holdings which are well down, hoping/waiting for a continued bounceback.

Thank you very much

Q: Hello Peter, Ryan and expanding team,
The yield curve is (dangerously) flattening; does that have any effect on the outlook for equities. It used to be one of the indicators of a severe downdraft.
Please enlighten me.
Greetings,
Antoine

Q: Peter, would you please give me the top three Canadian, American and European stocks with a long history of paying and raising dividends Thanks Ken

Q: Can you please provide a strategy summary for the following.
I'm trying to find a quick general guide to what types of stocks (and why) are best placed in a RRSP, what's best for a TFSA and what's best for a non RRSP/TFSA account.

thank you