Investment Q&A

Q: hello..Not selling anything but want to buy few...can you please advise 4-5 top buys. Thanks

Q: I am thinking about buying this company, but I want to see if I am missing something fundamental about them first. I see an ROE of 15%, year on year growth of 70%, a balance sheet not overloaded with debt, and the institution of a new roughly 6% dividend. Management claims they can double the lending book in the next three years. Is this not going to be an Alaris-like long term dividend grower off of a 6% base? Thanks

Q: Hi, to what extent are the shares of renewable energy companies such as RNW, CPX and INE suffering because low oil and gas prices are potentially seen as a replacement energy source, therefore eventually lowering demand for renewable energy?

Also, which utility companies do you feel offer good value and safety here (excluding pipelines).

Thanks.

Q: In this market,your advice is to keep calm,& the best course is to do nothing if portfolio is set up properly.Please advise if there are any stock in my below portfolio that I should NOT own. CGX,CQE,CRR.UN,DRT,ET,INN.UN,KEL,PHM,SJ,CEF.A,MNW,RX,SYZ,XSR,SU,PFE(US),HSBC(US),AMD(us) Thanks a lot for your usual great services & views.

Q: Some general guidance please. In this stock market correction some of the 5i stocks have held up quite well. Examples include CSU, ESL, DSG, SJ, SYZ, FSZ. Some other stocks have been creamed. For allocating new funds at this time, do you think the best risk adjusted returns will come from adding to these strong positions or adding to the stocks that have been creamed? Or is is entirely a company specific decision? Thanks.

Q: Good Morning. I have built up a considerable amount of US cash over the past few years. Does it make sense to buy dual listed stocks in US? Do you have any favorite US names in large cap companies as well that I should consider trying to pick up at lower prices in the next weeks? Some names I'm considering are MG, TD, DIS, GILD, HD. I would like companies exposed to the US market such as health care and the US consumer. Thanks so much for your help!

Q: We are thinking of taking a 3% weighting in either CCL.B or AGU. Our US dollar weighting is currently around 20% which may be too low. We have cash and I would probably sell some ALA in which we are slightly overweight (6%). I suppose our bank stocks (BNS & TD) are inter listed on the NYSE so the shares could simply be transferred to increase the US dollar weighting and purchase CCL.B. I am aware AGU offers a better dividend than CCL.B. We don't own any agriculture stocks but have a number of industrials - MDA, NFI, WSP, ALC & LGT.B. I like all those companies and don't want to sell any of them. In fact I intend to buy more MDA & LGT.B. (I assume CCL.B is sort of an industrial stock). Do you have any random thoughts one way or the other?

Q: Hi Peter,
I'm trying to learn from the rout this week. And so far all I've learned is what I don't know about corrections. I kept clear of bio stocks, because everyone said they were expensive. I got rid of all oil, gas and mining stocks. I tried to select quality low beta stocks. And still, I got hit worse than the indexes.
Among my stinkers: Kroger, Colliers, WSP Global, CCL Industries, Disney, Currency Exchange, Interpipe, and The Keg. Even DH and ATD got hammered. Meanwhile, other stocks I would have expected to get hurt like BCE, DHX or Knight, sailed through, and XBI was actually up today... In fact XBI has performed much better this week than most of the above! So what do you do to be as safe as you can in volatile times other than getting out of the market?

Q: Hi Peter and Team, looking for clarification regarding your ten picks for Greg in the current selloff, regarding Sunlife as a pick, wouldn't SLF which has a growing presence in Asia, with net income and operating net income in the region more than doubled, become an issue due to China currency affect?

They had a great quarter but how will SLF's international businesses be affected going forward, especially considering the Asian currency issues?

Thanks!

Q: Hello Team
I have been reading a few different newsletters now that are recommending to start accumulating in the gold sector and lightening up on equities and bonds. These are the same people that predicted oil would be at 40.00. Some of the reasons they are stating this has to do with that economic condition of Japan and europe. Lack of QE from the US. Downturn in commodities and now the China effect. What are you thoughts/opinions on gold sector and the accumulation of gold stocks/etf or bullion?

thanks

Q: LGT.B dropped a bit last week. I own it and want to buy some more. It is a great company but a pretty thin trader. If something ever went wrong I know I would take a bit of a "haircut". We own about 27 different companies & ETF's - most of them large caps. I think ALC, LGT.B and SYZ are the smallest caps we own. ALC acts like a large cap even though it isn't. I'm waiting patiently on SYZ.
Is a 4% weighting too high for LGT.B?

Q: I have held ARX,CNQ and VET for over 10 years. CNQ and VET have been good performers compared to ARX. For a "quality upgrade" would you sell ARX and use the proceeds to buy more VET and CNQ? Thank You Ron

Q: I am losing big time with my COS shares which were purchased at $21 and are now trading around $6.00. Since COS has only one asset and a lot of debt are they in a financial position where they may have to go bankrupt or can it be an interesting buy for another oil producer? I am wondering if I should sell my shares or hang on to them. I would appreciate having your comments. Thank you.

Q: What are your thoughts on SKK at current prices? I'm doing some bottom feeding and understand the risks. I just bought WCP, TOG & ESN and am now considering SKK & PNE. As always, I value your opinion/comments.

Cheers! Austin

Q: BEP.un is holding up well in the current market onslaught, while RNW not so much. From your comments you seem to like RNW but prefer BEP.un. Could you comment on these two please: Why does the market (and you) prefer BEP.un? How do they compare in terms of future growth prospects? Payout ratio? Price-to-cash flow? Which would you buy today? Would you sell RNW? What do you think of the two management teams? Thanks for your comments.

Q: Please give me your opinion on ocs.un. I bought some at 10.00 and some at $ 9.65. As you well know it pays .175 cents a quarter. When they called suckers for this closed end IPO, I answered the call. and now it is $ 7.43. Basically, they tax the payout as a capital gain so I have paid to get my capital back. Any chance of appreciation in the future?, or dump it. When I phoned to talk to them about the fund everything is top secret thanks to MR SCHWARTZ. THANKS

Q: I think I saw in the paper that there is a couple of companies in Quebec merging and going into the same business a Stella Jones Any Comment

Q: Hi, my holdings in basic materials is presently below my target of 5% for the group (Stella Jones, Goldcorp and First Quantum). I was thinking of purchasing more First Quantum hoping to take part in the eventual recovery in this sector. Just curious of your thoughts. What is the likelyhood that FM will not survive? Are they holding too much debt? Would you recommend a different move? Thanks. Mario.

Q: Our weight in VET has now dropped to 1.9% so I think I should either sell it or buy another $15,000 to increase the weighting back up to 3%. The only other energy stocks we own are CMG and PEY with a 2.5% weighting each. We have 27 separate stocks & ETF's and I believe you think 20 is the right number so selling VET may make some sense. Do you still feel VET's dividend is secure? Maybe I should just do nothing - any suggestions?

Q: Can you give me your opinion on Pivot and their QR? Are they expensive? Is the outlook positive with the initiation of the dividend?