Investment Q&A

Q: Greetings:
In one of your recent answers you stated that a particular company had a p/e of 33 and expected growth of 25%. In order to stay even, if investors pay 33x don't you need growth of the same multiple. Please explain.

Thanks,
BEN.

Q: Some context please to a common expression you hear on BNN.
When advisor/analysts on BNN say they will buy a stock on a "dip" or a "pullback", what do they mean? A 1% drop, a 5% drop, a 10% drop.
I am retired and looking for dividend payers as my source of income. Of course everyone wants to only buy LOW, but not always possible. I like to add to strong positions but wonder when that is advised.
Cheers.
PS I submitted this question early yesterday before the market drop so my question seems even more timely....for some reason it didn't show up in your question section

Q: With the turmoil in stock market, both good and bad ones are down. Could you recommend the growth stocks that offer best value but trade low due to current volatility.

Q: Hi,
I see in some questions you recommend a 90/10 split between equities/fixed income for long term investors. I’m 32 with good income and a full tfsa etc. Right now my accounts are 85% equities/etfs and 15% cash, just watching for good pullbacks to deploy. Do you think it’s better with the pullback the last few days to use the cash to add to long term safe stocks I currently hold (bns, bep, vfv, vgg, vee) or should it go to some fixed income? Could you make specific recommendations either way please?
Thanks

Q: Good day gentlemen,
Given the recent market sell off some dividend stocks seem to be sporting juicy yields. Can you compile a list of your top 10 high dividend payers.
Thx

Q: could you please comment on todays decline in both the tsx and dow any reasons why and is this a correction or a sign of things to come thankyou

Q: Hello Peter,

I just read your article entitled "Five Signs That This Market Party Might Be Winding Down" in the February 2, 2018 issue of the Financial Post.

In this article, you advise that, "Like any good party, there does come an appropriate time to leave." Specifically, you say that if the economic climate changes to a situation with increasing inflation and slower growth, "this would be a sure sign to get out of the market for a period of time."

I have only been a member of 5i Research for a few months, but I have extensively read through your answers to all questions, the blogs, etc., on the website. You consistently advise members that market timing usually doesn't work. This article seems to contradict one of your key tenets of successful long term investing. Has your philosophy changed, or am I misunderstanding something?

Thanks.

Brad

Q: I have been administering a 7 figure + portfolio for a good friend. At Christmas he asked me to liquidate $1M as he was feeling nervous. Given the events of last week it may have been a prescient call! In any case I am charged with finding a good short term home for the money and thus have been delving deeper into the fixed income world. There I have encountered "Bankers Acceptances." May I have your views?

Kim

Q: In response to Donald, it appears ok to pay RRSP fees outside the RRSP as of right now. However, the CRA is currently reviewing this rule and says that may no longer be the case as of January 1, 2019. A Google search of "rrsp fees paid outside rrsp" will bring up many discussions on this topic.

Q: Financial planners management fees of 1% are taken within my TFSA, RRIF accounts. This diminishes the balance in these accounts. Is it possible to have them paid outside of the TFSA and RRIF?

Q: So many questions related to income and share prices as interest rates increase: here’s one more.
Could one justify selectively adding to the ENB-BCE- KWH- FTS - TRP -T types of stocks as share prices drop... and we therefore see higher dividend rates?

The strategy is to own these companies almost forever (unless something unforeseen or disastrous happened) and enjoy the dividends.

From my vantage point this seems to make more sense than buying bonds or low rate gic’s for income.

Your thoughts please with this dilemma. We of course have already seen the share prices drop and are wondering what to do with cash on the sidelines currently.

Q: Can you help with secor allocation for 2018. Realise that the allocation will vary depending on factors such as risk tolerance, age etc. Just seeking your thoughts on reasonable ranges for allocation with a view to tweaking our investments. Thank you as always for your much appreciated assistance.

Q: The stock market performance of the TSE for 2017 was poor compared to other world stock markets including the USA. Do you expect more of the same and if so, what major world exchanges would you invest in 2018. With thanks, Bill

Q: On a business new channel I heard a comment about Utilities NOT being as "safe" an investment as we are generally lead to believe. I didn't quite catch if "safe" was referring to the stock price or the under laying business. You would think the safety of the under laying business would be based on expansion and price they can charge for their product. In terms of the proverbial "Utilities are safe defensive plays" would the stock brokers be referring to share price or the business model?

Q: Hi 5I
In 2008 i held my portfolio all through financial crisis even though it was very unsettling.I feel i made a huge mistake by not raising cash! There where unbelievable bargains of the canadian banks as one example with huge dividends available.Fast forward,now 64 years of age i have raised cash because i feel that a similar opportunity may exist. Maybe not to the extent of 2008,but it is with the strategy of picking up blue chip companies with enhanced yields for my retirement.
I have kept some good paying dividend stocks,preferred shares,debentures.
I am willing at this time in my life to forego some capital gain,to hopefully attain higher yields.
I concede that this is timing the market,but it is a strategy that i feel will help me in retirement.
Your thoughts?

Q: Just a comment about the site www.dividendhistory.org, members should probably be reminded that any 3rd party source providing information about a particular company should be taken with a a grain of salt and verified against other sources (such as the company's website itself). For instance I noticed that the referenced site showed a whopping dividend decrease for Savaria in 2017 and knew that wasn't right so when I checked further I note that although they supposedly adjust for splits, their system apparently didn't handled the switch to monthly versus quarterly dividends very well!

Q: Dividendhistory.org provides a long term history. For example, the history for AW.un goes back to 2005.

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan and Team,
Since I do not have access to a computer or smart phone at work, I do all my buy or sell transactions in the evening from home after the market has closed through TD Direct Investment.
So on Thursday Jan 25, 2018 I decided to buy Intuitive Surgical Inc. symbol ISRG in the U.S. because of its recent momentum. The closing price was 449.81 and the high price for the day was 452.00. Since I was dipping my feet in with a very small position of only 2 shares I placed my order with a limit price of $454.57 i.e. $2.57 per share higher than the high price of the day. I have found that this eliminates missing out if the stock opens higher the next day.
The next morning i.e Friday Jan 26, 2018 on my first break at work approximately 10 am I saw that I had a missed call at 8. 20 AM from TD but there was no voice mail message. So I called them and a TD agent told me that my order for 2 shares was cancelled by TD before the market opened because “ my limit price was too aggressive since ISRG was going to open lower at 437.37 ”
My understanding was that in such a situation my limit order would have changed to a market order at market open at 9.30 AM and should have been filled at the lower price. Because there is no way for most investors to predict that a stock is going to open much lower the next day.
The TD agent was unable to tell me what the threshold is to constitute “a too aggressive bid price”. Since I still wanted to buy the shares he manually put in the order for me and charged me $43.00 for the trade instead of my regular online rate of $9.99.
I would appreciate if you would advise me the reasons for and the ways to avoid such a situation in future without calling in to TD each time I place a buy order. Thank you in advance.
Frank

Q: Hi 5i: In the industrial sector of my portfolio I hold CAE, NFI, SIS, WSP, AMAT(US). I want to reduce the total number of stocks in each sector to two. I want also to make my portfolio as robust as possible to a NAFTA failure and/or a market crash. Could you please rank the above accordingly. I realize this is a tough question - thanks for trying!

Q: You replied to Michael today: "trim the areas that have done really well and add to the laggards". I can perhaps understand trimming back a position that one has done well but what is the logic of adding to laggards? Isn't this advice really suggesting you pull out the good stuff and add more weeds?