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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: A recent negative article in Seeking Alpha by Timberwolf Equity Research raised a few points that I hope you can comment on. The company was not calling for a short on the stock so the article does not appear to be self serving, although that in itself is not much proof. So while the article appears to be based "on facts", it does not agree with your recent review of the company.

The article as best as I can understand it raises 4 points.

1. That Starbucks accounts for 35% of the company's sales (23% of revenue). They acknowledge the company does not state this but that they have figured it out.

2. Inside ownership. and therefore an alignment of management interests with that of other shareholders, is a mirage because the company has provided these particular shareholders with low interest loans that require the value of the stock as collateral and for the dividends to cover the principle repayment costs. Therefore, the company's management has an incentive to raise the dividend whether warranted or not.

3. Cash flow is miss-stated because the company excludes working capital changes as it only includes replacement capital expenditures and leaves out expansion capital expenditures (I won't pretend that I understand this). The upshot is that the company's cash flow is closer to $28 million rather than the $81 million stated by the company.

4. Share count is ever increasing because the company finances its takeovers with low interest convertible debentures which almost assuredly means that the debenture holders convert their holdings into stock. The authors estimate that this resulted in a 22% dilution in 2015.

Appreciate your insight into these matters.

Paul F.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on July 28, 2016
Q: First, let me say thank you for your excellent advice. I appreciate your service to assist us.

I have an investment in PIF and I am thinking of adding as the stock seems to be technically strong with an attractive dividend. Since the stock split in May, 2015 it has done very little and it was in a decline prior to the stock split. Do you know much about the Company's history and what are your thoughts on Company's future? More specifically would you be comfortable buying?

Don
Read Answer Asked by Donald on July 27, 2016
Q: Peter; The Alberta government just announced they are going to challenge a agreement made by the previous PC government to basically allow power companies out of contracts if they proved to be unprofitable due to actions by the government. It's called the ENRON agreement.. Can you quantify which companies these would be, and the impact, if the challenge is upheld.? Thanks. Rod
Read Answer Asked by Rodney on July 27, 2016
Q: Greetings Peter and team:

I hold the BCE, Brookfield and Fairfax preferred shares referenced. Obviously they have not fared well over the last few years. I am wondering if there is any reason to hold them at this point? I did notice on Monday when the market was broadly down that they were among the few holdings that were up. Do you think holding them as insurance against a market decline has any merit, or should I just book the loss and move on? As always, your insight is appreciated. Thank-you,
Read Answer Asked by Stephen R. on July 27, 2016
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