Investment Q&A

Q: Hi, These two companies, which are leaders in the packaging industry ,and enjoy a positive view with 5i, have seen their share prices perform quite differently. Over a 5 years period, RPI has outperformed CCL.b significantly, but during past 12 months and more recently, CCL stock has shown signs of steady comeback, while RPI price continues to languish at 50% below its peak of $85, reached in Oct, 2020. We are aware that two companies operate in different segments of packaging sector and while CCL has a larger geographical reach, RPI's operates in North America, primarily. We used to own CCL.b few years ago, but sold our position and replaced with RPI units, about 3-4 years ago. Could you make a comparison of the two companies, with respect to their size, leverage/debt, business/growth prospects, insider ownership, current valuation and risk to assess, how they compare/rank on these metrics and the reasoning. Also today if you own them, what will be the objective - Income or Growth or Both for each. Thank You

Q: Hello 5i,

If someone was seeking safety and wants to either ladder or 1 term some GIC's, would it be a good time to start seeking the best rate be after the July 13-22 BOC rate announcement? It looks like Sept 7-22 is the next rate announcement so I was thinking even if another 0.50% was to occur not all would be passed onto GIC's.

Would you recommend a GIC strategy / company in Canada. The money I want to buy GIC's is from a personal house so principle safety is key. Since costs are rising so much I won't be using the money for 2-3 years even if the housing market cools it will take many quarters to normalize costs.

Q: The dot-com bubble of 1999/2000 exposed investors to risk that legendary investor Sir John Templeton called "temporary insanity" ultimately resulting in Nasdaq's 78% decline from it's high. Just over 20 years later, one could argue, the same sort of "temporary insanity" took hold and we have now seen only a 30% decline with many high-flyers losing 75%+ of their value yet for some reason still are getting recommended. An current example would be Lightspeed. It went public at $19 and ran all the way close to $160, up almost 800%. Now it's around $26, down around 80% from the high. Upstart would be another one.

Solid companies such as Cisco & Qualcomm survived the dot-com crash but never reached the earlier stratospheric valuations again.

Question: What makes this time any different for growth stocks? Or should growth investors really temper their expectations? I can't imagine these and many other surviving companies reaching those lofty levels again....and certainly not in the near future.

Q: Always looking for return, it seems with the euro almost or at parity it might be an opportunity to put a modest amount of cash into the euro at this time. Do you consider this a good idea or is there a stock or ETF that would do the benefit the same from a future growth point of view?

Peter

Q: Canoo Inc NASDAQ: GOEV does this company have the potential to be another Tesla? Any insider buying and how good is management?

Thank you.

Q: Can you recommend one or more etf's that would provide exposure to the health industry including medical devices, genomics, biotech, big pharma etc. Covered call etf's in these sectors would also be of interest. Thanks

Q: In a question today regarding top health care stocks you mentioned abbivie as one of the top choices but not lly. I know that in the recent past you were strong on lly over abbevie. I bought lly at that time, in fact, and profited quite well from the purchase. Thank you. My question is what made you pinpoint lly as a good prospect earlier on and what brings you to not mention it now in response to the question on top health care stocks?

Q: I am participating in an investment challenge at work. We all pick a portfolio of 1 to 15 CAD or US stocks July 18, 2022 and revalue them October 31, 2023. Whichever portfolio grows the most in CAD wins a cash prize. Can you give me any suggestions of stocks poised to "light it up" over this time period. Note that there is no entry fee so I can invest in extremely risky volatile stocks.

Q: It seems many analysts feel that Health care is a good place to be going into the next 1 to 2 years, do you agree?
Could you name your top 5 Health Care Names, Canada or US?

Thank You

Q: Given Brookfield's backing of SPB, would you be comfortable holding it instead of a much larger company like AQN?

Thanks.

Q: followup to my question from yesterday about dnd. you replied
The Link deal would be highly accretive to earnings, and set DND up for very strong market share and growth. That being said, with the long delays, regulatory issues, and the market, we do not think many investors really think this deal is going to close.
has this been your thinking when you have recently rated, on several occasions, dnd as one of your top growth picks? has your view changed with the apparent demise of the link deal?

Q: CAE looks to have a roughly 50% revenue split from civil aviation and defence - would you consider it comparable to Raytheon without having to be exposed to currency conversions via buy/sells? Thanks

Q: I have to believe there’s value here, especially with Las Vegas so busy and no Macau exposure - what are your thoughts? Thank you

Q: Do you think the natural gas issues in Europe present a real opportunity for PEA (One which they will be able capitalize on)? Is it a reasonable trade or investment now?

Q: I am wondering about the Hamilton ETF offerings and if they may offer a benefit when markets ever "turn the corner". I know it is impossible to time the markets. Could you comment on these few points:
- Will these slightly leveraged products provide extra torque over the base holdings, dollar for dollar, when markets are rising?
- Is slow buying a reasonable option or with leveraged products do we need to look for a clear bottom and changing market sentiment so the leverage doesn't also leverage any ongoing declines?
- Do covered call products provide any downside protection when markets are well off of a growth phase and could slide further?

Thank you!

Q: Hi 5i,
In regards to XEI and VDY ETF's.
I looked at their T3's for the last couple of years using the CDS services site
and found that: XEI seems to consistently have ROC and for VDY it is inconsistent from year to year. These are supposed to be Canadian equity income ETF's so why do they pay a portion of their distribution as ROC? Can you help explain why this might be happening to other ETF's?

Q: Based on your last comments on Pliant therapeutics(PLRX) from May 12, could you please update on those specific comments and on the recent news that made the stock double. Where do you see it going from here? This is what you wrote last time…

Asked by James on May 12, 2021
5I RESEARCH ANSWER:
PLRX has $277M in cash, but only expected revenue of $16M this year. Cash burn was $37M in 2020. 1Q loss of 64 cents per share was 6% worse than estimates; sales of $2.2M were 49% worse than expected. Insiders own 3.5% directly. We do not know management but see no concerns there. There is not much to go on here. As a clinical stage company, performance is going to depend on trial results. It has two main trials (early stage) that will be releasing results later this year. The pipeline is decent but again, early stage. It has been public less than a year, but shares have nearly doubled in that time. There is upside potential for sure, but the future may also be binary based on good/bad trial results.

Q: These six companies comprise my “Small Cap Canadian Technology” holdings. As I like their long term prospects, I am content to hold all of them for their recovery potential over the next few years. However, I would like a second opinion from you: would you agree they are all good companies worth holding, or would you switch any of them out for better quality names? If so, what would be your suggested replacements and why?

Q: Hi, do yo feel they manage to survive or go bankrupt. Greetings Peter.

Q: CSU and BEP.UN are graded A and are your only A grade companies in Canada. What might be an A grade company from the U.S. if you were to grade?

Thx