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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: Hi Peter and Team,
Would appreciate your position on stock buybacks. Money managers that appear on BNN tout stock buy backs as a positive akin to dividends. However, the following article questions this practice and would appreciate your take :
http://www.philstockworld.com/2015/03/12/harvard-business-review-throws-up-all-over-stock-buybacks/

Appreciate all you do for us small investor types,
Steve

Read Answer Asked by Steve on March 16, 2015
Q: further to your response to Alexander re: PLI and CRH, could you expand to include comment on MSL potential and any other similar Cdn. health small caps - thanks
Read Answer Asked by don on March 16, 2015
Q: Hi guys,

I want to limit exposure to the financial sector to 20% of my portfolio. I currently own TD and BNS and with the recent pullback in the major CDN banks, I'm thinking of adding 2 additional banks and I'm thinking about BMO and RY. I don't want to invest in an insurance company since no one can be sure when rates go up and I'm not sure about Home Capital Group since it is more concentrated in its business than the major CDN banks and the yield on the major CN banks are twice that of HCG? Your thought? It is risky to hold 4 major CDN banks in my portfolio if overall exposure is capped at 20%?

Thanks,
Jason
Read Answer Asked by Jason on March 16, 2015
Q: The charts on CSW.A and CSW.B look very different. I noticed that all questions on Corby's have been asked using CSW.A. Don't retail investors usually buy the B series? Any concerns about lack of trade volume? How much inside ownership is there? Which symbol should I consider? Best, Don
Read Answer Asked by DONALD on March 16, 2015
Q: Hi team. I have 16% of my portfolio in these energy, with WCP being my largest holding at 6%, and SPE my smallest at 1%, the remaining about 2.5-3.5% each. My portfolio is quite balanced sector-wise. It looks like oil is going down again, and I am wondering if it would be wise to lower one or more of my holdings, or just stay for the ride. Thanks as always.
Read Answer Asked by Kim on March 16, 2015
Q: I have a sizeable position in Qcom and I am under water in what I accepted to be a cyclical stock. After all the damage done in China , and after holding out against Asian competitors coming from all sides , it seems that Intel is going to be swooping in on the Apple . Is losing the iPhone chip business going to murder the stock price of Qcom ? ( I am still hurting big time from my GTAT loss ) .... Would you be a Seller here ? Thanks,
Read Answer Asked by Thomas on March 16, 2015
Q: Buy before or after Earnings Release?
I have done both and invariably seem to get it wrong on both sides. Optimistic about a prospective stock, I buy before and am disappointed by a poor result. Cautious about a prospective buy , I wait and then wonder if I should "chase" after a good result. I have no consistent strategy, but am increasingly coming to the view that's it's better to wait in order to avoid the loss with the proviso that you'll have to pay up for a good result.
What do you recommend as a general guideline in this situation?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by William on March 16, 2015
Q: Hello Peter & Co.:
I'm a buy & hold type investor. Here's what I hold in my CA portfolio:
Consumer - CGX, CCL.B, MG, DHX
Financial - BMO, BNS, HCG, SLF
Industrial - BIN, CNR
Materials - SJ
Oil&Gas - PEY, VET
Technology - DH, CSU, OTC
Telecom - T
Utility - PPL, IPL, ALA

Between ATD.B and XTC which one do you think fits the best. I'm kinda leaning towards XTC for the higher dividend, but ATD.B seems as though it would be less cyclical and a good defensive stock to own.
Thanks so much for all your help.
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on March 16, 2015
Q: Hi, while trying to balance my portfolio with a target percentage holding for each sector of the economy I realized that I am very light in the following areas; Healthcare (I don't have a single holding) consumer staple (only holding is Loblaw) and finally Telecom (I have holdings in Bell and Telus). I prefer buying companies that pay a dividend & have room to increase these dividends from time to time...Could you please recommend a few solid names in each of the 3 sectors I am looking to add to. Thank you very much. Mario.
Read Answer Asked by Mario on March 16, 2015
Q: Hello 5i,
I am considering buying my foreign holdings (outside North America) in the currencies of their respective countries, currently they are held in US dollars. When a sector is bought into, I generally will purchase approximately 10 different securities to remove the idiosyncratic risk, so I have a lot of companies. Currencies considered other than Canadian and US are British Pound, Euro, and Australian Dollar.
What do you think of this?
Thanks,
Read Answer Asked by Mark on March 16, 2015
Q: Hi Peter, read your article on March break strategies in FP. I will be spending April in Europe. YTD I did very well with some Canadian companies such as AC, VRX, Magna, but especially in the US biotech sector. What should I do? Go to cash? Put in stop-loss orders? Or just monitor the market from Italy - I can trade over the internet, of course.Thanks for your advice.
Read Answer Asked by Kurt W on March 16, 2015
Q: Hello Peter,
Being with Raymond James, they recommended buying Bird Construction as they had it as a Strong Buy beginning of 2014 so we purchased it and have been losing money ever since..now down 30%. Last Friday Raymond James downgraded the stock to market perform with only an $11.00 target. In their notes they say it is a great company but not the best construction stock to own at this time. I am wondering if we could get your take on BDT and if the dividend was safe at this time. The dividend is important to me being a retiree.

Or would you suggest we put our money into something else.

Thank you,
Charlie
Read Answer Asked by CHARLES LA on March 16, 2015
Q: hi peter is ffh a buy at the moment thank you.
Read Answer Asked by suzanna on March 15, 2015
Q: I own Delphi at higher prices and am thinking of selling for the capital loss and using the money to buy Painted Pony. (PPY) I would like your thoughts on that or another gas stock. This would be my only natural gas stock. I would also like to know about GLN Glentel and if this deal is going to be completed and do you have any idea when we can expect the deal to close. THANKS
Read Answer Asked by John on March 15, 2015
Q: I purchased this at the same time as A&W and both have dropped substantially since purchase.
I would appreciate your review of the financials of RPI. and is the reason due to recent distributions made or are they connected to Market swings.
I am wondering if I should be selling or do you consider this holding appropriate.
Thanks for your advice
Read Answer Asked by Rick on March 15, 2015
Q: Hi all,
ISSI a small us tech company is taken over by a consortium. ISSI Enters Into A Definitive Merger Agreement To Be Acquired By Consortium For $19.25 Per Share

Following the announcement I received roughly 15 email alerts of law firms launching investigations of the deal. This seems to confirm the feeling I have - 20% premium over Wednesday price isn't much.

Now what to do? I worry if I hold and the deal collapse investors will punish the stock due management not working in shareholders best interest. Any chance of better deal in this case? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Dominic on March 15, 2015
Q: Hi Peter and Co.
Have you taken a look at the earnings yet? Rev. was 5.2 million and earnings 0.06 per share. Rev. growth was 26% and earnings were down year-over-year because of one time costs. What were expectations and what do you think of the earnings?
Thanks,
Michael
Read Answer Asked by Michael on March 13, 2015
Q: were cxi earnings yesterday good enough to justify your top pick on bnn on feb. 4. if you owned it would you buy more now. dave
Read Answer Asked by david on March 13, 2015
Q: Hello Peter:

Could you please comment on the latest earnings results for Gamehost. Is the dividend safe. Thank you.

ED
Read Answer Asked by Edward on March 13, 2015
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