Investment Q&A

Q: Can you please provide the names of some Canadian blue chips with the best balance sheets regardless of sector?

Q: What are your thoughts regarding their largest single acquisition to date?

Q: Given the current volatility in the markets could you provide your top 5 Canadian and US stocks based on earnings, with some growth upside?

Q: Given the recent and continued decline in Teck stocks, can you provide your top 5 Tech picks for US and Canada. Small and large cap??

Q: I'm confused by the forward P/E I'm seeing for CSU in the 31 range using earning estimates of about $67 versus the trailing P/E of 111. Earnings per share before non recurring items was $23 in 2018, $21 in 2019 and $28 in 2020. Should I have much confidence in the high earnings increase for 2022 and 2023?

Q: I'm thinking the drop in OTEX price is making it look attractive. The current P/E of 24 looks reasonable for this company but I'm seeing a range of forward P/E of 14 to 55 for OTEX. Are you aware of any concerns over future earnings? Do you consider
CSU:CA as more attractive for a 5 year hold?

Q: Good Morning
We have a approximately 10k that we would like to contribute to our Grand daughters RESP. We would like to do so with stocks and have about a 10 year window before the funds would be needed. Could you suggest 3 conservative stocks that would be appropriate for this type of account with one additional stock having a more aggressive approach?
Thks
Marcel

Q: Hi group - I am a medium risk investor - Can you please give me your top picks + % weighting in the top sectors - Financial, Industrials, Materials , Energy, Health care , real estate, Tech Thanks

Q: I went back to Constellation Software’s old reports to compare results to Topicus’ current results. Constellation had similar revenue ($891m USD) in 2012 to Topicus in 2021 ($846m USD).

Here are the revenue growth rates for those years:
CSU : 15%
TOI: 50%

Here are the acquisition amounts in those years:
CSU: $141m USD
TOI: $385m USD

By the numbers, it would seem that Topicus is significantly more aggressive in terms of growth by acquisition than Constellation was when it was the same size back in 2012.
My question is can Topicus keep this rate of acquisition up over the next five years or so, or are they picking off the low hanging fruit and things will get much more difficult down the road? Thanks

Q: Thoughts on the quarter please? Thx

Q: Hi Team,
Hypothetical question. I have read certain clips or articles of people thinking that Topicus can have more potential growth wise than Constellation in the long term because they are perhaps more aggressive. Is there any truth to this? Also, your best educated guess... do you think eventually TOI will be able to end up with the same market cap (todays numbers) as CSU within the next 10yrs or so? Just trying to guage the real long term potential of this company. Thanks

Shane.

Q: This is a follow-up to our question from last week (see: https://www.5iresearch.ca/questions/140708).

Based on your response that nothing in the list gives you much cause for concern, we would understand this to imply none of the 30 stocks would be considered a "sell" today.

Please divide the 30 stocks into a pair of ranked (best to worst) lists, one of "buys" and the other of "holds". As well, for each of the "holds" indicate the principal rationale for caution.

Q: CSU: Down ~ -10% @ 9:30AM this morning; now -6% @ 9:35 AM. Shocking for this stock! Any news, or just following the Tech meltdown du jour?

Thank you.

Q: I have some new money to invest in my TFSA. I am well diversified in my other accounts, and am now wondering what to add to my TFSA. I am a senior so I would say about a 5 year time frame that this would stay in the TFSA, maybe more.
Any suggestions you have would be helpful.
Thanks so much for your help in the past, it has always proved very lucrative.
Shirley

Q: What does the market expect for this quarter?

Thx

Q: Can you give me 2 or 3 of your favorite management teams. I'm starting to think that's what I should put the most weight on. I'm going to use this as my deciding factor for picking growth companies.

Q: About 1 year ago we created an equal-weighted 'balanced' portfolio of 30 Canadian companies in a non-registered account. Most were chosen from companies either covered by a 5i research report or included in a 5i model portfolio. The remainder were chosen, based on the 5i Q&A section, from what appear to be 5i sector favourites. All purchases are made with the intent to be long-term holds (10+ years). As well, we intend to increase our investments over the next 2-3 years, and then adjust over time as needed. Currently the amount invested represents ~40% of the eventual total.

Although a goal is to keep the portfolio roughly equal weighted, of the 30 companies, the following 14 were acquired in 3 purchases (full position) and currently have weights in the 2.31% (SHOP) to 5.00% (ATA) range for an average of 3.71%: CSU, MG, GSY, WSP, LNF, ATD, ATA, SLF, BAM.A, BIPC, FTS, DOO, SHOP and TFII. The remainder were acquired in 2 purchases (2/3 position) and currently have weights in the 1.98% (BEPC) to 3.17% (TCN) range for an average of 2.56%. So, overall, the weightings currently range from ~2% to ~5%.

Over the next 6 months we will invest another ~25% of the eventual total. As we make additional purchases, we need to strike a balance between keeping the weights roughly equal while taking advantage of market opportunities. Please provide some broad guidance/wisdom.

Of the 30 companies in the portfolio, which 10 would you have the highest conviction in today? Please rank them.

Are there any of the 30 that you might consider as candidates to be replaced because there are better options, and if so, what replacements would you suggest and why (disregard tax considerations)?

What additional 3 Canadian companies might you consider adding to the portfolio and why?

As always, thanks for the great service!

Q: The Technology sector has seen a dramatic valuation reset. Would this be a catalyst for growth of CSU and TOI since the companies they look to acquire may now be more reasonably priced? Would this apply to other high quality growth by acquisition technology companies?

Q: Can you define "secular compounder" and list a few Canadian companies which meet that definition and which you would find attractive today?

Thanks,

Q: Hi 5i.

I have studiously avoided investing in tech companies, largely as a result of not taking an interest in/understanding their businesses. (This is similar to my reason for never investing in crypto, which I can see only as a load of hogwash.)

With the recent drawback in tech prices, I now have some interest in putting some money into a couple of tech stocks that have a good growth outlook in the near- and mid-term. With that as the goal, simply some growth over the next few months or year, what 2-3 names, Canadian or American, would you suggest? (NB: I am thinking of putting no more, and probably less, than 10% of my portfolio into this play.)

Thanks for your help.