Investment Q&A

Q: Peter and staff,

In order of preference, please list your favourite utility stocks for an income investor. Please subdivide into electrical, gas and pipelines.

Thank you and may thanks for your great service.

Paul

Q: In my TFSA currently have BCE, ENB, FTS, TRP, CNR, SLF, BNS and TD - Currently down about 5% in the portfolio. I'm looking to make a change to get some growth in lieu of dividends - what would you recommend keeping and buying.
Thanks

Q: At what point does 5i acknowledge the severity of the problems at these companies, including reducing their 5i stock ratings? Both of these companies have been severely punished for very good reasons. Too much debt. Cant get the prices they wanted for asset sales. Cant sell shares into the market for a decent price. Interest rates are rising. They have backed themselves into a corner and have really damaged themselves, ENB more so then ALA. ENB future dividend increases are a fantasy, a cut is more likely. Yet still rated an A- ?

Q: Hello 5i,
In the recent sell off I sold enbridge for a tax loss and bought Algonquin as a replacement, thinking to sell it and buy enbridge again after thirty days. But, I have been thinking about keeping Algonquin in place of Endbridge. This because of possibly growing problems with pipelines and also the postive outlook for cleaner energy with Algonquin. I have been wondering, though, whether the absence of pipelines would be a big negative point for my utilities sector. So, I guess the question is whether clean energy utilities like Algonquin and Bep can replace the pipelines without too much loss in the utilities sector of one's portfolio?

Q: Hello 5i team,
I want to add some funds to the energy and financial sectors and I currently hold both ENB and FSZ from the model portfolios. Both have had increasing dividends for the past 5 years but both have also gone down in the past year.

I was wondering if you have any idea why FSZ has declined and if it is still ok to add to both these holdings?

Thank You,
Andrew

Q: Hello team, I have heard through the grapevine,( employees in mgmt positions) that there may be a big shakeup in the top level. Apparently the ceo of Sprectra, now chairman of enb (Gregory Ebel) is not happy with the status of Enbridge and has indicated that he may take over as CEO of Enbridge and replace Al Monaco. Have you heard any such rumors. Obviously the market is not happy with Enbridge as it has declined more than the other Canadian pipelines. Does the market know something that we don't?

Q: Hi 5i - WSP is in your income portfolio and I'm wondering, as it is declining, is it a good time to buy or could you recco another few income stocks instead.
Thx - Doug

Q: Re Jason question March 22 regarding metrics for downside support for telcos, utilities and reits. . What cos would you recommend which meet a sufficient number of the metrics? Thanks

Q: With the drop of share price I have less than a full position in these stocks. I can top-off only two, which would you choose and why? Thanks!

Q: Gentlemen,
Another comment on ENB & ATD.b
NBF has a strong buy on ATD.b (the stock is a darling by most analysts).
EBN has 5 stars by MS and many analysts on BNN recommended it.
Disclosure, I have both manes on my PF
No one has a Crystal ball !!
BR

Q: Hi,
Lets say Enbridge does what a few analysts are thinking and drops from its current 40ish to 33ish. Does this really have an effect on anything besides presenting a great long term buying opportunity? If dividends are covered by cash flow, and cash flow is under contract, does a lower share price change anything besides market cap? What other consequences do you forsee there? Im thinking about buying in now (I have many years to sit on it, so short term drops dont bother me), then watching it and averaging down if the opportunity presents itself. Since dividends are covered almost 3 to 1 by cash flow, even if the share price drops to 33, could they still not afford to continue raising the dividend to encourage more buying and therefore help re raise the share price? Maybe Im oversimplifying this, thanks.

Q: This is not a question, it is a statement!
As one of your members states ENB is in free fall ! Very reputable Advisers stated as I mentioned that ENB will drop to 33 plus dollars ! But you keep defending this Company for its dividend! The stock has dropped from 58 dollars to 38 dollars now while you maintained a buy rating! How many years of dividends you have to receive to make up for the capital loss if you own 1000 shares at 58 ?
I think that a moving stop at a 5% loss from a new height is a much better choice at the prevailing energy markets!!!

Q: This article claims impact on ENB:
http://business.financialpost.com/commodities/energy/pipeline-selloff-deepens-as-dbrs-warns-enbridge-subsidiarys-credit-rating-could-significantly-weaken

Your comment please

Q: Clearly the stock is in the doghouse and is getting no love whatsoever. Reading the Q&A's I keep reading that the dividend is covered by cash flow. There is no disputing that fact when looking at the cash flow statement. But the dividend pales in comparison to the other huge use of cash which is capital projects. What do you think it's going to take to turn the share price around? The market does not like something regardless of all the handholding and reassuring management has done. Maybe the company needs to come out and say they are stopping all future dividend increases (it yields well over 6% now) and that cash will go directly to pay down debt. Do you think that would be a catalyst to stop the freefall?

Q: Hello 5i team,
I hold 3 stocks in the energy sector: ENB since 2012, KEY since 2010 and PKI since 2006.
With an average total return of 5% per year (which basically equals the yield) ENB is, by far, the worst performer.
That begs the question: granted ENB is a good company, but it does not seem to be a good stock to own.
Thank you,
Antoine

Q: ENB is yielding close to 6.5%. I have been hearing about an MLP announcement and it's lack of material impact on the company.
Is the dividend of 2.68 on EPS of 1.65 sustainable (even taking in to account significant amortization of infrastructure)?

Q: How much debt does Enbridge have? If interest rates go up 1% in the next 12 months what is the additional cost to them and how does this impact free cash flow? Thank you as always.

Q: Reading the answers given to inquiries on ENB, would it not be prudent to counsel some patience until fact gathering step can be performed before attempting to respond? As more information comes available, it is becoming clear that the impact may not be that significant and that it may trigger a number of regulatory rate reviews that could diminish the impact of the announcement yesterday. It is also clear that only gas and not oil pipelines are at this time impacted. Seems to me that some value should be attached to the quality of management to cope with regulatory pronouncements in such instances. The quest by members for immediate opinions may not assist in making wise investment decisions.

Q: Other than ENB. what other Canadian stocks could be effected by the MLP ruling and to what degree. also if and when would this come into effect.

Q: With re balancing in my cash account I have a capital gain of $25,000 in 2018. If I were to sell my CGX, ENB and GUD I would have a loss of $14,000. My thinking is that this loss would offset the capital gains.

I intend to re buy these 3 stocks after the 30 day period,

Does this make sense?

Thank you

Sincerely

Mike