Investment Q&A

Q: Hello Peter & Co,
I am very pleased with my 8.6% portfolio performance in the first half of 2015; this performance continues the trend of 17%total return per annum for the past 6 years.
However, my exposure to the industrial / infrastructure/ transportation sector is quite narrow with only BIN, BIP.UN and CNR; I also hold LNR and MG but I have placed them under Consumer discretionary.
Could you please suggest a few names to fit in that category?
Thanks,
Antoine

Q: For a 10 year hold, which company would you consider a better buy right now (WSP or BIN)? Thanks!

Q: WSP is been deleted from the TSX Comp. high yeld dividend index,while WTE is been added,what is the criteria used by TSX in order to justify the swith ?

Thank You to the whole 5I team.

Q: Hello,
WSP has been loosing value lately and down 10% in a month. My WSP holdings are about 4% of my portfolio (sector total 10%). Should I be concerned? What's your current view on the stock? Give the current market is it a buy, sell, or hold?
Thanks.

Q: I have a question about WSP Global Inc. Is the deal today material and why the muted market reaction? Thank-you

Q: What are your thoughts about today's earnings announcement? Thanks!

Q: I own WSP/AW.UN/HNL/CGX/STN/BDI/CRW/IFP. Are all these stocks considered as services stocks? Since I own so little of each I would like to sell some and increase the holding in the ones that I should keep. Which ones should I sell and which ones should I keep?

Thanks
Dolores

Q: I think you have mentioned in the past that for a retired conservative income investor, it would be appropriate to hold roughly 15-20% of foreign equities.

My first question is regarding 15-20% of what...the total portfolio of equities and fixed income or of only the equity portion?

My 2nd question is regarding each company and where they are domiciled. For example, BNS has 44% foreign income (based on their annual report). Do you count BNS as 0% foreign or 44%? WSP has 79% foreign. Do you count it as 0% or 79% foreign?

I have done it both ways. Using only where the stock is based (ex: BNS = 0% foreign), I get 14% foreign content. Breaking each company down by the income percent by geographic, I get 22%. Both of these #'s are a % of my total portfolio.

However, if you take the percentage of foreign content divided by only the equities (ignore fixed income), I get 35% foreign.

Back to my question...15-20% foreign content = based on what?

Thanks for your help.
Steve

Q: Thanks for the very quick response, and further, I was thinking that BIN has us revenues, does that also apply to wsp.

Thanks

Q: Hi Peter and team
You recently suggested WSP for an RRSP account. Since I have Stantec STN in a non-registered account. Stantec has been going down since Sep while WSP has been fairly stable. Do you recommend WSP over Stantec now?
Also would it be possible to have a "Heathcare" category added?
Thanks
Kathy

Q: What is the current payout ratio for WSP? What is the likelihood of a dividend increase over the next year?

Thanks in advance.

Q: We have a 1.5% position in WSP Global and 1.5% in Stantec (STN) and no holdings in the Transportation sector. Do you have a recommendation re adding to WSP versus buying Trimac (TMA) or Transforce (TFI), or other thoughts.

Q: I am seriously considering WSP from your Income Portfolio. Aside from the nice dividend, I like the more than five-fold revenue growth since 2008. But, I am concerned that EPS has actually decreased over the last 5 years. With this lack of accretion from previous aquisitions, how can I have confidence that the most recent acquisition will pay off? I am also concerned about the high P/E multiple of 23 times TTM earnings. The forward P/E of 16.8 is not too bad, if they can actually pull it off. I would appreciate your comments and your recommendation.

Thanks,
Hans

Q: Regarding your recent blog comment on infrastructure. Would you please recommend some Canadian/American stocks that would benefit most from an increase in spending for infrastructure products.

Thanks for your insights.

Peter

Q: I'm looking at buying into either WSP or Badger (BAD). Which do you believe is the better purchase as a growth stock or (assuming sector weightings are in line)do you think taking a position in both is a good idea.
Thanks
Jim

Q: I am a retired Dividend-Income investor and need to bump up my asset allocation in the Industrial-Tech sector.

I have narrowed it down to WSP and ET from your Income portfolio. ET looks good but seems fairly illiquid. WSP appears to have better metrics than ET (P/BV, P/Sales, upside based on Globefund summaries), but the beta is a little higher. Additionally, RBC has WSP as overvalued.

I like to give a stock time to run and have a healthy dividend. What are your thought on buying WSP vs ET at this time?

Thanks for your great service.
Steve

Q: Hi Peter, your thoughts on the latest results. The market seems pleased. Thanks!

Q: I need an infrastructure stock in my portfolio. Can you rate WSP, Aecon Stantec or SNC. Which one in your opinion has the best growth rate and are there others you would favour.Thanks.

Q: In a taxable account with significant gains for the year, I am sitting on a 13% loss with WSP and 10% loss with ET. I could buy RRSP's to negate some of the tax issues on my gains, or sell one or both of my stocks underwater - with intentions of buying them back after 30 days. I'd appreciate 5i's thoughts?

John

Q: The markets have been quite strong the last few days, yet WSP is not participating. Today, for example, the stock was down while the market was up nicely. My concern is, if the stock is weak in a strong market, what happens when the market comes back down. For some reason, my impression is that this company is not well liked by investors. Any idea why and what might turn this around?