Investment Q&A

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: Can you give me the perpetual preferred share symbols for these companies.

Q: I have a question about H&R Real Estate Investment Trust

Was the HR Real estate investment trust in one of your portfolios at one time ? If so, when was it removed and why ?

Can you suggest any pure play energy pipeline ETF, in Canada or the US.

Q: If I am enrolled in a drip, is the stock purchased at a discounted rate or the market price of a stock. I own the listed companies; are any of those are eligible for a discounted drip purchase price? or do you need to buy them directly from the company to qualify for the discount.

Q: Retired dividend-income investor. I'm sitting on 15% cash that I created by taking profits and harvesting some losses. I have mapped out how to redeploy this cash to hit my asset allocation targets, both by sector as well as by individual holding. I had originally designed the re-entry on spreading the purchases over 6 months. Given that we now have information on different countries indicating that they MIGHT be showing signs of COVID slowly recovering and that the stock market is forward looking, would you adjust the 6 months time frame to 4 months? What's your crystal ball tell you...redeploy a little faster?

Also, the above equities are those that are candidates for topping up. Which would you hit up first?

Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: with the glut of oil currently in the marketplace and chatter that there is nowhere left to store it will this affect the amount of product flowing thru their pipes...and hence reduce operating cash flows...which of the 2 companies would it affect less...do you have a preference at this point between the 2 companies...with thanks...Cheers

Q: So with the pipeline companies yielding between 8 and 20% and factoring in a 50% dividend cut, they would still have a nice yield. I suspect that some might increase, or at least slow price decline if cut.
Please list these companies in order of balance sheet strength and debt % and coverage, and order of preference. Thanks

Q: Hello
I will appreciate your comments as to how the coronavirus will affect TRP and ENB.
Do both companies have high exposure to the virus like the automotive manufacturers or low to moderate exposure to the virus ?

Thank you

Q: Hi Folks
can you comment on Enbridge and TransCanada ( TC Energy ) - are they still okay to hold at this time ? In particular are they okay to hold at the same time - I have both BUT not in the same portfolios. I have ENB in my RRSP (2.5% position), in my wife's TFSA (2.5% position) and in my non-registered account (2.5% position) . I have TRP just in my wife's RRSP (4.5% position ).
Appreciate you comments.
Thanks

Q: I am a buy and hold investor with 5 to 10 years of time horizon.
Have the following 7 stocks in Canadian Utilities in the order of their weights in our portfolio. Utilities makeup roughly 8.5% of the total portfolio including cash positions and like their dividend. FTS, TRP,EMA, AQN, ENB, BEP-UN, BIP-UN. I like to reduce exposure to utilities and also like to reduce number of different shares. Two questions:
1. Is 8.5% a reasonable weight considering the current situation?
2. Which one of these I should sell to reduce utilities weight and to reduce the number of shares in utilities?

Q: Pipelines Enb,PPL,TC,GEI,KEY are the dividends sustainable and how would you rank same ?

Q: Hi, I'm a retired, dividend-income investor. I took some profits and losses (to wipe out potential capital gains) over the last 5 weeks and am now planning on reinvesting the cash to top up some of my existing equities, up to my desired asset allocation. I want to leg in, in probably 3 waves over the next couple (?) of months, to top up ZWC, AD, AQN, AW, BNS, BCE, LNF, NWC, RY, TRP, WSP.

Can you please indicate which of the above equities you would allocate into which wave (in other words, does it look like the equity is "ready" for an investment OR should I continue to wait for a while)...or not at all (not worth any further investment).

Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: Retired, conservative dividend-income investor with a "buy-and-hold & trim-add around a core position" strategy. At times like these, I take a fresh look at my holdings and ask two key questions. #1 = are there any of my equity holdings that have alarm bells going off? #2 = how safe are the dividends (knowing that no dividend is 100% secure)? The portfolio capital may rise or fall, but it is the continuation of the dividend that is more important.

For asset allocation purposes related to individual stocks (as opposed to sector allocations), I use the following:
5% targets = AQN, BCE, BNS, PBH, RY, TRP, WSP
4% targets = AD, AW, CSH, NWC
2% targets = LNF, MG, NTR
ETF targets = roughly 3-7%

Q#1 = are there any of these equities that you hear alarm bells?
Q#2 = are there any of these equities where you foresee dividend risk?
Q#3 = any thoughts on how I have my asset allocations set up (knowing it is a very personal decision?

Take a bunch of credits. Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: Q: Hello Gentlemen,
I hold 5.8% of TRP and 4.2% of ENB in my portfolios. Long term TRP has underperformed both PPL and ENB. I consider selling half of TRP (in RIFF) and use the proceeds to take a position in PPL.
Your opinion please.
Thank you,
Werner

Q: I have had a small position in Keyera since before the oil price crash. It is still down 20% and even the most optimistic forecasts will only bring it close to my cost price. Its dividend is about the same at PPL, is lower than ENB and higher than TRP. ENB is my only other pipeline stock. I could sell KEY and add to ENB or open an position in PPL or TCP. Which do you think would be better for income and a little growth?

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team,

I manage my son's TFSA, and it's quite well diversified, except for zero exposure in energy. For this year's contribution, I'm considering one of ENB, IPL, TRP, or PKI. I realize that PKI is in a different sub-sector, but am leaning towards it, and would appreciate your insight. We favour dividend payers, even if it's a small dividend. Thanks as always.

Q: Your thoughts and preferences between these 2 pipeline companies. (TRP & IPL)

Q: Anything on TRP this am Re volume and price drop? Thanks. Rod

Q: Hi team,

What are your 2 to 3 favourite pipeline companies in Canada right now? Is the sector fairly priced? How are valuations impact by rising interest rates?

Thank you,
Jason

Q: Could you provide a list of your top 3 Canadian pipelines and identify the one you would buy today for growth and overall strong management for a 2-3 hold.

Thank you Donna