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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: Peter, here’s a challenge of sorts for you; I hope you can help. We are about 5 years from retirement. Our RRSPs and TFSAs are topped up, so we’re starting a non-registered account for excess savings. We have no need for income from the account (though, as you’ve said, it’s a good sign when a company initiates or grows a dividend). Can you suggest around 6 or 7 ‘lowish-risk’ stocks for long-term ownership? By this, I don’t mean we’re unduly concerned about volatility or short-to-medium term losses. Rather, we’d like stocks for which you think a loss of more than, say, 25% after 5 years is highly improbable. We are already topped up on banks, energy producers and REITs, but are probably a bit light on IT, Industrials and consumer stocks, amongst others. To add to your challenge, we already have fairly full positions in FSZ, SJ, WPK, ESL and DHX, all of which have done well for us, thanks to you! (ENB, DSG and BIN seem like possible candidates? But we’ll leave the advice to you.) Thanks for the TRULY excellent service and the unbiased guidance you are providing to us smaller individual investors. James
Read Answer Asked by James on February 10, 2015
Q: This stock continues to get hammered and still hasn't cut its ultra high dividend.Even when oil makes a bit of a uptick it still goes south is this stock that at one time had promise dead in the water ?
Read Answer Asked by terrance on February 10, 2015
Q: Hi team,

I'm working on diversifying my portfolio with a canadian media company. I have been looking at Corus Entertainment (CJR.B). I'm a bit concerned with their relatively high P/E ratio for the sector as well as the drop in their EPS form 1.7 to 0.6 recently. I like their 5% dividend payout, but wonder if this is sustainable given their reduced profitability.

Do you think corus's profitability will improve or continue to decline? Would you consider it a good option to buy at present or would another stock such as DHX media be a better purchase (even though teletubbies freak me out).

Thanks,
Jill
Read Answer Asked by Jill on February 10, 2015
Q: Hello, I have a small position in this stock. Since I purchased it, it has increased in value by 15%. I am thinking of adding more to my position. The stock has a ROE of 50%, a P/E of 3.3, trades at double its book value,has a 5.5% yield and has exceeded its profit projections on the last two quarters. On this basis, it appears to be a excellent value. My question is "am I missing something?"

thank you for your response.

Regards, Alan
Read Answer Asked by Alan on February 10, 2015
Q: Hello,
I have very little fixed income in my portfolio (7% GIC's) and feel that I should probably increase this as I will be retiring in 3 years. What are your thoughts on adding ZLC, to bring my fixed income up to about 11%.
Thanks
Roy
Read Answer Asked by Roy on February 10, 2015
Q: What are your thoughts on FRX : TSX as a spec play?
Read Answer Asked by Michel on February 10, 2015
Q: Good Morning Peter, Ryan, and Team,
This morning it was reported on BNN that a larger competitor of Avigilon, "Axis Communications" of Sweden, was purchased by Canon of Japan. The price paid was $2.83 billion US. From a pure technological perspective Avigilon appears to have the best end to end mouse trap. How do you think this transaction will affect Avigilon going forward and do you think that AVO may end up being acquired by someone as well ??? Thank you for your wisdom and insight. DL
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on February 10, 2015
Q: hello, i would like to know if you have an opinion on sirius xm. thanks jim a.
Read Answer Asked by jim on February 10, 2015
Q: I own Gilead and Celgene already , and am considering Medivation or BDSI ...
Am I in a high risk sector , or is this the space where growth is most likely . Any thoughts you might have would be appreciated .
Read Answer Asked by Thomas on February 10, 2015
Q: Finding out whether or not investments are foreign, even if listed on the TSX, is only part of the fun.

Here's the CRA updated information for Form 1135 for 2014.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/cmmn/frgn/1135_rprtng-eng.html

I had thought the old form wanted adjusted cost base but now they seem to be talking highest fair market value at the end of any given month. At least it's aggregate.
I'm tempted to just go with what my monthly brokerage statement deems as foreign, and that total ( which does not always agree with what I suspected was foreign, or with where head office is!) since that is the tax paperwork that the CRA will get.

Anyway, enjoy everyone. We all know that 5i is not a tax accountant service!
Marilyn
Read Answer Asked by Marilyn on February 10, 2015
Q: Can I get your thoughts on this ETF as a 5+ yr hold as part of a diversified portfolio.
Read Answer Asked by Rob on February 10, 2015
Q: As a long term holder of RIO, have been very impressed with management.
Can you offer an opinion of this combo & price being paid & future for the
combo.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Joseph on February 10, 2015
Q: There seems to be some confusion on your recent comments between these 2 similar but different cos. nwh.un is strictly in Canada while mob.un is international, with a small exposure to Canada. Could you give a separate opinion on each. Thank You
Read Answer Asked by george on February 10, 2015
Q: is this a good time to take a position in the above?

Thanks
M
Read Answer Asked by Marios on February 10, 2015
Q: May I please have your current opinion on BRE.
5i is a superb service. Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Margot on February 10, 2015
Q: I am a new member and this is my first question.
I own the following REIT's BTB.UN, CUF.UN, CRR.UN, TN.UN, DRG.UN, RMM.UN and REI.UN. I also own ZWB. These REIT's plus ZWB represent 26% of my portfolio. Is this too high a weighting or should I reduce and if so which ones should I dump. Other than this my portfolio is diversified across other dividend paying equities.
Thanks in advance.
PS enjoying your website, particularly the questions and answers.
Read Answer Asked by John on February 10, 2015
Q: Most of my money has been handed over to professionals who have more time to focus on investing and frankly have abetter track record than I do! However I'd like to keep 10-15% of my portfolio as a serious hobby (2 TFSAs and an unregistered account). Thanks to your wise words, I am getting more diversified and now have about 35 stocks (some of which will likely be sold when resources recover a bit). I'd like to add to Healthcare as this is under represented in my portfolio. I currently own some Knight (GUD) and Chartwell (CHS which is only sort of healthcare). Am I correct that of the Canadian healthcare choices, CCT would be your top choice even after the recent run up? Am I also correct that you would view my number of holdings as being at the upper limit for a diversified portfolio?

Thanks for your patient assistance!
Read Answer Asked by Dave on February 10, 2015
Q: I'm wondering if you would consider any of the stocks in either portfolio too expensive at this point to buy new positions in? Some are doing great and have grown so much, and are great to hold in the portfolio, but you may not want to buy new positions at their current prices. Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Ann on February 10, 2015