Investment Q&A

Q: What's your view of ZWU now with tariffs coming. I'm downsizing risk in my portfolio but would like to keep it for income. Would you add, hold, or sell. Thanks, great service.

Q: Dear 5i
Between my wife and i we have 3 RRSP accounts. I wanted to add some more utilities stocks to the portfolios assuming now was a good time to do so . I'm having problems deciding between PPL , FTS , and TRP . Should i put PPL in one account , FTS in the second account and TRP in the third account or would you advise to pick the best one of the three and put that one in each of the RRSP accounts ? If you have other suggestions that would be great as well .
Thanks
Bill C

Q: A question this morning mentioned a report on updating your income portfolio. Do you do this every time you update a portfolio? If so, where do I find the report in a timely manner?

Q: Hello,
I am looking to add to my US non-registered account. Retiring soon and looking for safety & sustainable growing dividends. Which of these do you prefer and why? Is there something else you would suggest? I am building up my portfolio and have small holidings in GOOGL/JNJ/VICI.
Thanks, Leah

Q: What is your level of concern around a possible dividend cut at some point on Telus?

Q: Would you feel it is worthwhile hanging on to Rogers Communications stock? Assume you had a portfolio with a lot of different stock holdings and wouldn't mind reducing that number somewhat. It certainly is cheap at about 8 times earnings, and has a good dividend rate, but is there much of a potential for the stock price over the next 2 - 3 years? The latest earnings report was rather unimpressive and they are forecasting 0 - 3% EBITDA growth next year.

Q: For a non-reg account, looking for some high quality dividend names. Companies that have a history of growing their dividends with a good stock price track record. Already own, RY, TD, POW, and ENB

Q: is this a good time to buy BCE

Q: SPB cut their dividend by 75% late last year. They have bought back almost 5% of outstanding shares since then. Seems like a stable energy distribution business where scale offers cost advantages. It is leader in Canada and 4th in US.

The shares are down 60% from their high a couple years ago, but all assets and accounts, etc remain intact. The only change I can see is capital allocation has changed from dividends to buybacks.

Your thoughts???

Q: I added some units of BEP Brookefield renewable Power when it went sub $30. The dividend yield at sub $30 is about 6.5 per cent and the price is getting close to 52 week lows. I know that on Monday a lot of the utilities, especially Vistra in the US, dropped a lot on speculation that the new Chinese AI model might indicate that power demand for AI may not be as robust as some think. But BEP has been drifting down for a while. Is there something wrong with BEP that I don't see? Should I continue to hold BEP or even add some more at these depressed prices?

Q: Hi 5i Team:

Before you reach out to that rotten egg to hurl in my direction for asking yet another question on this stinker of a company (!) let me say a few words in my defense! I spent the last 39 mins or so going through all the recent questions on BCE using your symbol search! I couldn't find the answer to the question that I am going to ask now!

Hypothetically IF BCE were to cut it's dividend by 25% ( currently at 11.58%) then what will be the stock price post cut? It is 34+/-.
However if the stock price drops a lot, wouldn't it make the dividend go up? I thought there's an inverse relationship between the stock price and dividend, no?

In any case, I know you are not too keen in speculating about price targets. Based on your experience with large companies that cut their dividend, what's your price target for BCE assuming it cuts it's dividend?

Many thanks.

Q: Hello Team,

A lot of power producing companies, including CPX, had a great run since the advent of AI and the need to power data centers sprouting everywhere. With the news about Deep Seek a lot of them took a shaving yesterday. Do you think CPX can recover? Thank you as always for your valuable insight.

Adel

Q: it is noticed that there several (8) analysts rating ENB a hold , also 8 analysts rate it a buy, while the average price target has already been reached, it seems that the former analysts believe some head winds are coming soon, which will force the price to drop. is it the new Trump era affecting ENB ?

Q: In my question of yesterday, you suggested a 2% weighting for TRP. Please provide some comments as to why you selected this weighting. ram

Q: Hi,
Thank you for answering my question on US Utilities. Much appreciated.

You mentioned that Canadian utilites may be a better option in your answer. I have H, EMA,FTS. Should I add to these or add another utility? Any suggestions in this space?
Thanks again.

Q: td analysts see this going up 100% this year and also dividend raises. It has done well compared to other canadian telcos and pays a 6.5% dividend and has been raising some 8-10%[just raised 8%]. Am i missing something since bce drops 30% for year and will not raise dividend or possibly cut in future. what is your take on cogeco for future as a dividend investor

Q: Can we have your thoughts if you think the dividend is safe given the payout ratio is in excess of 100%
Analysts are constantly pushing for a dividend cut which is favourable for the people that purchased for both growth and income.
Management has said that they wont cut dividend , but what other choices do they have . ? selling the maple leaf assets has been more then offset by the purchase of the US fiber assets

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor.

I've held Alaris just about forever and the current AD.UN iteration since 2018...bought in the $12 range. It has been on a bit of a run lately and hit $20 today. It is now in the asset allocation range I usually reserve for blue chip companies....instead of a smaller allocation reserved for smaller, higher risk companies.

With their portfolio of partner companies, I have also considered Alaris as almost ETF-like. I break out their holdings into the various asset allocation sectors, while maintaining a 50% weight in financials.

Q#1 = related to their valuations (P/B, P/CF, P/S, P/E), is Alaris on the cheap or expensive side?

Q#2 = do you agree with my thinking, that AD is almost ETF-like? If so, then I can live with the slightly higher asset allocation. If not, then I could comfortably trim and reallocate the proceeds.

Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: I'm sorry . I meant to ask on LIF as opposed to LAB
it has a low P?E, High dividend yield and a high payout ratio of over 100%
Just wanted to gather your thoughts as to the sustainability of the dividend and the growth potential given the high payout ratio

Q: Hello team 5i:

It seems that for better or for worse utilities seem to have entred into a "union" with Technolgy sector, thanks to the perceived putative need for high energy demands !

Therefore utilites espcially in the US no longer have an inverse relationship with growth stocks. So it seems to me. I thought they will play the role of a "stabilizers" for my portfolio. That has not been the case.

Any thoughts? Should I consider something else (sector or stocks) to lower the volatility? Can you give me some names, say 3 to 5 stocks in the US utility sector that are NOT involved with AI energy demand craze?

My Canadian utilites fortunatlely remain "boring" and chugging along nicely :) Of course I can collect some nice dividends plus in my non-regd account, dividen tax credit helps!

Thanks for your help as always.