Investment Q&A

Q: I LOVED today’s question on BCE. But not as much as I loved the answer. Laughed out loud!!!

Q: This is my question

Q: Asking for a retiree in their early 70s -- Need some Canadian Dividend stocks mainly for income. If you an provide 3 that is safe that'll be great!

Q: Hello 5i Team
Comparing Rogers Communications vs Shaw Communications - which is the better company for further growth and increased dividends? RCI-B increased its dividend slightly in 2018 and no previous increases since 2015. SJR-B last increased its dividend in 2016.
I already have equal weight positions in BCE, Shaw and Telus - I am looking for which company I should invest in to reach my desired portfolio percentage in the Communications Sector?
Should I look at the Cogeco family of companies instead of Rogers/Shaw?
Thanks

Q: I have these 13 stocks at equal weighting of approximately 5 percent each in my RSP, along with 35 percent in fixed income. Stock value of approx 1,300,000. Fixed income is approx 650,000. Cash 50,000. In your valued opinion, is the above stock selection diversified enough?, or are there other sectors I should be in. I am 69 and going to retire in the next year.

Q: Good morning ,I have a half position in BCE and I was going to fill the position with Telus. Do you recommend doing this? I'm a long term investor. I am slowly moving my portfolio to income stream/dividends as I will be retiring soon (within the next year).

Q: I will retire in two years at 62 and receive OAS and max CPP at 65.

I have significant savings and investments.

At this moment in time what are your top five long term income producing investments. Relatively safety with some growth potential.

Thanks much.

Q: I'm looking to add another 5 quality dividend payers for the long term. Do you see any issues with my existing positions? SOME growth would be nice but secondary to dividend amount and safety of dividend. Industry and country are not important.

Thanks

Q: What is your best guess as to the likelihood of a dividend cut by any of the above listed companies? Thanks.

Q: I have heard on BNN market call that Telus pay out ratio is higher than its cash flow. Also that the BCE significant profit is derived from landline phones which will be declining. In such case an investment in these two telcos at this time would be of questionable value . Would you agree with such statement?

Q: In a portfolio where the priorities are capital preservation and some income, these 7 equities represent about 45% of the total value. The other 55% is in sadly low paying GICs. The TOU is a left over from more positive times with a very small weight and kept with a hope for natural gas. The other 6 have weights of about 3% (TD) to 10% (BCE). My question is about how these would hold up if we had a very significant downturn with re-test to recent lows (or lower) with a much more prolonged recovery; do these stocks have some resilience? Are the balance sheets sufficiently secure to see less of an negative impact? Is there sufficient diversification with these holdings? Thanks for your excellent service.

Q: Hello Peter,
Is Well health technologies taking a hit due to the financing that was lower than the current price? If so, is it a good time to add to it.. Why are companies like fortis and other utilities and telecoms taking a hit . I thought lower rates would favour utilities and with work from home, companies like BCE would benefit as more people use the network. Lastly, do you feel it is time to add to LSPD or take a break given recent surge.. thanks very much

Q: What do you think of Lincoln National? Is the dividend "safe", Do you see it moving back to a pre-Covid level, are there better choices.
And, what stocks do you see thriving in a low/negative environment?

Q: Hi 5i,
Would you recommend buying SRU.UN at the current price for a 5 year minimum hold? Same question for JPM please.
I currently have BCE and considering adding a new position in TMUS, Thoughts on the addition of TMUS at current price for a 5 year minimum hold?
Thank you
Terry

Q: Given that my Margin account has the 5 big banks and 2 Telecoms paying dividends on a periodic basis and that I'm not "too" concerned that these will cut their dividends, would it be wise to implement trailing stop loss orders for these in case there is another retest of the lows of March. Had I done that at the beginning of the year, I could have picked up the above at much reduce prices with resulting greater dividend yields. And would using the same procedure for my RIF account (which has mainly REITs) be beneficial to capture the current values to avoid further losses there.
Your comments. Thank you

Q: Hi Peter: When I sit back and take a look at the big picture and review how my portfolio performed during COVID-19 (so far), I try to see what lessons I can learn, then turn to how to apply those lessons to make my portfolio stronger.

I am a retired, dividend-income investor. I am a huge believer in asset allocation and have designed a portfolio, in my opinion, to be reasonably well diversified, although heavy to Canada. It WAS roughly 70% equities (including 32% foreign content) and 30% fixed income (roughly 15% insured annuities, 15% Fisgard Capital...both averaging in the 5-6% pre-tax range and minor cash). My equities are mostly blue chip, dividend payers, as you can see above. The 3 mutual funds are a very minor part of my portfolio, especially Eric's Energy Fund (<2%). I also receive a company pension and CPP-OAS which, when included, drops my equities to roughly 32%.

I use various metrics to monitor my portfolio, such as P/E, P/BV, P/CF, P/S, Beta, ROE, Div growth, Payout%, technical indicators like 200 mda. I am normally a buy-and-hold investor who trims/adds around a core position.

Periodically I measure how "at risk" my portfolio is relative to the overall market. I do this by prorating my portfolio using Beta. Based on equities only, I averaged 0.68 and for my entire portfolio I averaged 0.44. So, one would think that if the overall market (TSX) was to drop 30%, then I would have thought my portfolio would drop 44% to 68% of that, being in the range of 13% (overall) to 20% (equities only).

In actual fact, my entire portfolio dropped 27% from peak to trough vs the expected 13%...over double! I understand that EVERYTHING was sold off...almost no exceptions. So what do we learn from this and what changes should we consider? Do we accept that "sxxt happens" once in a while...you can't predict every event, accept it and move on? Should we consider increasing the cash component as a buffer? Or...is there something else to be learned here?

Thanks for you help...much appreciated...Steve

Q: Hi 5i - Retired income investor but also interested in growth. I have been holding FFH.PR.K:CDN for a number of years. Decent income but limited growth opportunity. It represents 1% of my portfolio. Portfolio analytics indicates I should increase my exposure to communications services. I've been thinking of selling FFH and buying BCE which I don't hold or adding to my current Telus holding (at 2.5%). Other options could be adding to Fiera (only 1% holding) or to TD (3.6%). Appreciate your thoughts and other options that provide relatively safe income with a greater long term upside. Really appreciate the good work you guys do!

Q: Hello 5i,
Thank you for providing a clear and modulated message through the past 2 months.
For a 5-10 year hold could you rank the top 10 highest (TSX) yielding stocks with the safest dividends. ( strongest balance sheet, lowest payout ratio, historical dividend growth, etc).
Could you also rank them separately in terms of bounceback / growth potential over the next 2 to 3 years?
There may be redundancy in this question vs others asked and the 5i portfolios - so please take as many credits as necessary.
Thank you

Q: For an income play is this saver than Enbridge? Do you have a preference?

Q: bce or telus, what is the best pic? brenda