Investment Q&A

Q: I have a small position in Avigilon in my TFSA I bought on May 1st 2015. I am down 35% and ready to raise the white flag. Should I sell now in tax loss season or wait till January or after the next quarter or keep it? I would like to buy Knight Therapeutics (GUD) or Itertain Group (IT) with the proceeds?
Season Greetings to all.

Q: Cal-Maine has been in a steady downdraft over the past number of weeks. Can you provide any insight as to what is causing this? What is your current view on the company and assessment of their recent results. Where do you see this stock going over the next 12-24 months and why? Thanks.

Q: For sector allocation purposes you mention 10% utilities and 10% energy for a conservative portfolio. Which sector do the pipes,TRP,IPL, and ENB fit into? Thank You Ron

Q: Is there any reason to continue to hold Twin Butte Energy ? Would it be better to take a tax loss an move on. my energy exposure including TBE is 5.7%. TBE is .4% of my total portfolio. $1.07 is my cost base. Thanks for your thoughts.

Q: Posting only small tastes of the new ETF & Mutual Fund letter is too much of a game of "Here kitty kitty," and doesn't seem appropriate for a loyal following that is glad to spend money for what they feel is a good value. Could you post either the full issue or a couple full articles from it? Thank you.

Q: - There has been a lot of downside with the attempt to buy office Depot and that fallout but are the fundamentals also a mess? What's up?

Q: I need some advice. If I sell some of my PHM by taking a 40% loss what other 5 companies will you suggest as replacement within the similar high growth small cap segment.

Q: CBL has turned into a falling knife. Past commentary suggest that the company may go private. Is going private essentially a forced sale at depressed prices? More specifically, would it have the effect of locking-in current shareholders' losses, or is there any way shareholders can benefit from a post-private recovery? Is it fear of this event that is now driving the price down?

Q: KNow this has been a hot topic lately. But the reason for the fall might be a report just issued by Veritas calling DOL a sell.

Here is what they said:
"Canadian equities
Dollarama Inc. (DOL) - $81.70
Need-to-Know Veritas: Sell (PT $79)
Dollarama reported record GPM of 45.9% compared to historical average of 42%-43%, which led to a 35% increase in EBITDA to $154.8 million. Dollarama’s multiple price point strategy is the key driver of its strong SSSG, with average transaction size increasing at 3%-6% for the last several years while traffic increase was a mediocre 1% on average. Management indicated on the conference call that it will introduce new price points of $3.50 and $4.00 in the second half of F2017 and moved to a new metric: % of sales above $1.25 (instead of above $1.00 previously), which signals that the retailer is close to reaching a saturation point at the lowest price levels and needs higher prices to supplement SSSG. Given the company’s reliance on SSSG and growing expectations for ‘beat and raise’ quarters, a saturation point could create notable downside in the name should the company see slower than expected growth growing forward.

Sheldon

Q: To a largely great extent, figuring out price action (market action) is not an intellectual exercise as much as it is an emotional one. That aspect of analysis should not be minimized though 5i dismisses this. 5i can't understand the sharp drop in pipeline stocks. Before their rout, the sector had been trading a 1 or 2 --even 3 standard deviations from 10 year Price/CF average and it became a very crowded trade. This sector is a perfect example of a sector being bid up for no reason other than yield and relative safety. It's been a disaster over the last 12-18 months. They are better priced now but the next shoe to drop is in Telecoms. Comment?

Q: Can you comment on the recent issue of Royal Bank reset preferred
shares Series BK? Are they a suitable investment in the current
climate or are they in the same boat as other reset prefs? Thanks.
Joe

Q: I have a profit in SYZ and am entertaining using that profit to buy sis- would you endorse a move from syz to sis? If not where would you put it ?

Q: How would you compare TNT.UN and Sot.un ? Both are small comercial reits with high yields and Tnt.un just seems to go down.

Q: Given Dollarama’s recent good quarterly results and the (perhaps unwarranted) stock price reaction, would you consider this as a buying opportunity? Enough to recommend DOL over ATD.B for a new purchase today, or would you stick with ATD.B as your top pick in the consumer space?

Q: I am down 28% and 19% on these 2 stocks.For tax loss selling which one or both would you suggest selling?Or neither.Thanks.

Q: Good morning team, Are we to assume that next report will be good based on their news today? Would this news give you confidence to average down?
Thank you!

Q: Your comments on earnings and guidance please?

Q: dollarama just pegged their price at $1.25 because of higher inventory costs because of our low dollar.I was thinking maybe a lot of people will think this is not a dollar store any more and sales will drop.

Q: Sorry my question got changed to banks but I was asking about Utilities.
I don't own any and was thinking of picking up a large position for year end. What do you think of this idea and the sector over all? What weighting would you give them? How many should I own? Which ones would you recommend? TIA

Q: The latest drop down transaction with tranalta is described as receiving tracking preferred shares in these assets.Therefore are they being rented or owned ? As well if Transalta goes bust what happens to RNW since TA owns 65%.