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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: I am largely an income investor and hold the above stocks for their dividends. I am concerned that some of them may have high levels of debt and will be negatively impacted by higher interest rates. Can you advise which are the most and least indebted companies, and whether higher interest charges could threaten their dividends? Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Ken on October 12, 2018
Q: The preferreds of various insurance companies are getting whacked with numerous issues hitting yearly lows on Friday, including some not connected with the Mosten lawsuit such as GWO. As a holder of several investment grade issues of these companies it is difficult for me to quantify how large the potential liability could be. Does 5i have any sense of this?
Read Answer Asked by Jeff on October 09, 2018
Q: A comment on the lawsuit. I am a lawyer who does lot of work for banks and I pay attention to court rulings that effect them. If Manulife has to appeal any adverse ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada, Manulife is very likely to win this case. The Supreme Court has demonstrated in other cases that it will try to accommodate the daily business of financial institutions. For those who care about such things look at the recent case of Royal Bank vs. Trang.
Read Answer Asked by Murray on October 05, 2018
Q: Considering MFC position or SLF position, next week. MFC appears to have the better cash / share price ratio (29 vs 20), greater pullback from 52 wk high (16.5% vs 8.4%) and a slightly better dividend yield (3.79% vs 3.69%). SLF appears to have a tighter standard deviation than MFC, since 2012. I've seen past Q/A stating you prefer SLF over MFC. Your thoughts on these two life insure co's or other life insure co's would be appreciated.
Read Answer Asked by LARRY on October 01, 2018
Q: ray.a is your top pick on BNN but is not in any of your portfolio, why ? At current price between mfc and slf which is a better buy ? After the recent news of the awards of contracts is maxr an attractive buy ?
Read Answer Asked by c c on September 13, 2018
Q: With all the hurricanes, earthquakes, flooding, droughts, etc, etc ,etc. How can insurance companies profit? The Canadian Gov't is taxing everyone to death and there is only so much money left over for average people to carry coverage so something has to give and on top wages are not going up for these people.
I would like your take ion insurance with these obvious conditions.

Thanks, James

Read Answer Asked by JAMES on September 10, 2018
Q: I have a small position in GWO, more in MFC and most in SLF. I would like to either own one or two of these. Which do you feel has the most potential? With the cash from the sale what would you recommend in the health sector?
Thank you,
V.
Read Answer Asked by V on August 14, 2018
Q: I now have roughly equal positions in IAG, SLF and MFC, with the total somewhere between 8 and 9 % of portfolio. I bought these primarily for the dividends. However, MFC has lost value relative to SLF - and IAG has lost even more. Why are MFC and IAG underperforming SLF to such a degree? Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Gordon on August 02, 2018
Q: For the past two years the so-called experts have been saying that rising interest rates will benefit the banks and insurance companies through a more favourable rate spread. Yet, every time the BOC raises rates share prices have gone down. Now the same experts are raising concerns that higher rates will hurt the banks as the rates will negatively affect the credit-stretched consumer. Seems like the experts are playing roulette and betting both black and red at the same time. Your thoughts?
Read Answer Asked by Brian on July 12, 2018
Q: I have a 7% position in MFC. Normally this security would benefit from rising rates. My thoughts on this has changed. Borrowing short term and lending long term doesn’t look that attractive to me at this time as the yield curve is flattering. I’m an income oriented investor are there better opportunities elsewhere.. I’m down about 5%. What are your thoughts on my thesis? Should I sell and move on, reduce my position or hang on? I also have a smal positio in FLI.
Read Answer Asked by Roy on July 09, 2018
Q: Trimming the herd to pay off the mortgage. Any compelling reason not to sell the above names. I have a few others on the maybe trim list if you make a compelling case to keep any of the above. Balanced growth follower.

I am heavy financial ( thus ditching rbc and mfc), wjx is one of my dogs ( offsets some of my gain on financials) and rus- tpk -wpm have gone sideways so no gain-loss on them. Gets me out pretty cap gain neutral and cleans out a bit of dead weight not in your balanced portfolio
Read Answer Asked by Tom on June 18, 2018
Q: I am heavy financials at about 20%, I should probably trim the herd....All but CHW will generate a large capital gain as I have held most for a long time. I hate to sell CHW as it pays a crazy div right now at almost 8%.

I am leaning towards holding all but taking the dividends and putting into other sectors (stock from the your balance portfolio following your balanced equity portfolio) and not adding any new financials to my holding.

Can you provide a compelling argument for selling 1 or 2 of the above for the sole purpose pf rebalancing out of financial. Or is my slow but steady approach with lower tax implications a reasonable compromise knowing I will be heavy financial for several years.
Read Answer Asked by Tom on April 12, 2018
Q: I've been coasting along with Manulife for a little over a year and am thinking about bailing. Other than higher interest rates (which haven't helped so far), do you see any catalyst in the next year that should move the stock higher? What other financial would you replace it with if you were to sell (the only Canadian bank I currently own is TD for 2.6% of portfolio).

Thanks
Peter
Read Answer Asked by Peter on April 06, 2018
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