Investment Q&A

Q: Hi,

In light of recent market volatility, can you provide a short list of some of the best defensive equities/ETFs/Mutual Funds that can/could be expected to not decline as much as the market during a downturn/correction?

Thanks,
Cam

Q: I would like your comments on HMP vs HBB, CBO & XBB? Would they all react basically the same to interest rate increase?

Thanks, Gilles

Q: Can I have your opinion on NPI and AQN for stability and growth. Which would you prefer for a long term investment?

Q: Hi, you have recently recommended the following four utilities for long term investors: ALA, PPL, BEP.UN, FTS.

Can you advise how you would rate AQN compared to the above? I am an income investor and really like the chart of AQN for dividend and capital growth. Do you see the growth continuing?

Q: I am looking at DDJ, but the shares do not seem to trade very much at all. Also they have a lot of speculative names in their portfolio. On the other hand, the yield is good at 7.6% and the share price has been stable for quite a while. Are there any other good alternatives to HYB.UN that have more liquidity, less speculative names and comparable stability?

Q: I would appreciate your thoughts on adding 1% to an existing positions in PPL and ALA at this time. Current utilities allocation is 8% as follows: ALA 2.5%; PPL 2.3%; BEP.UN 3.2%. Alternatively, would you suggest replacing one of these holdings with either FTS or EMA?

Q: Which is most likely to be able to grow and to pay dividends
for the long term ( ten years )

Q: I would like to add a utility to my portfolio. I've compared Emera and Fortis. Would you recommend one of these over the other or an alternative?

Thank you.

Rossana

Q: 9:35 AM 8/23/2015
Hello Peter & Staff :

I have a large Prov of Ontario bond representing 3.5% of my portfolio, maturing soon with a 4.3% yield. The only altenative I have is to replace it with the safest most reliable dividend stock that I can find as I choose not to buy bonds, GICs, or preferreds because of the very low yields and the risk of capital loss on preferreds.

I searched today for any Provincial bond worth owning and I don't come up with much : The bond with the highest yield that I can find is an Alberta bond maturing 2029 that yields 2.49% to maturity, so any "safe" stock that can beat that return surely is better even if they cut the dividend by 50%

I am expecting a very protracted very rough time in the markets in the next years ahead. I would like a stock that I can hold indefinitely that has a rock-solid balance sheet, reasonably low debt, reliable growing dividends, and long-term stability.

It seems to me that the "safest" sectors with good yields are financials, telecoms, utilities, and the few consumer stocks with decent dividends, and I have been searching through all your answers and am considering CM, NA, GWO, BCE, FTS, EMA, CSW.A, and CSH.UN as possible candidates.

Could you comment on these companies please, indicating which you believe to be "safest" for long-term ongoing dividends, and explain your choices for me, and perhaps list them in order of preference.

Your answers are always most appreciated, Many thanks...... Paul K

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: 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: With regards to your earlier response to a question on ENF closing the asset transfer deal, yesterday they announced shareholder approval and expect closing of the transaction to occur on in 10 days. At this point, is there really much risk of the deal not closing?

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/enbridge-income-fund-holdings-inc-shareholders-approve-acquisition-of-canadian-liquids-pipelines-business-and-renewable-energy-assets-from-enbridge-inc-2015-08-20-181732718

Q: ENF keeps going down, is it just market related? Is it good long term buy at this level and in this market or should I wait.

Thanks,
Milan

Q: What dividend stock names would you be adding to in this selloff if you had money to deploy?

Q: On Jan 1,2015 TD Research indicates a seller sold 3 million shares, 500 times the normal volume. This seems to have started a almost 20% correction in the stock. Is this an institution selling? For a low beta stock this seems very overdone. The price is at my 20% stop loss but I purchased this stock for stability in a paranoid market. Your comments please?

Q: Good Morning.
Grenville is getting pummelled today. From what I can see, it is because they took an impairment against 1 investment. I think this is the second "bad investment" over the life of the company, but they have a portfolio of 25 companies. Did I miss something else?

Thanks for all you do.

Q: Can you please comment on the earnings release?

Thank you

Q: I was reading over the report on ACQ and noted the statement "that they are no longer the only publicly traded option out there", but observe that you don't name the others (and I am not familiar with them). Would you consider adding a section to your reports to show other publicly traded companies that might be compared and contrasted before deciding to buy a specific stock? Even a partial listing of alternates would be interesting.

Q: Yesterday, August 17, the ceo of EIF was on bnn , extolling the virtues of their most recent financial results. Later, another guest was on warning that they may have a good EBITDA, but the cash flow was poor and they will run out of money by year end. I looked at the statements for June 30, and I do not understand. The cash flow per share would appear to be OK. Perhaps my source is incorrect. What do you show? I tried to get both parties today by phone to no avail. Also, question today from Charlie. What company has the ticker BEI?
Thanks Peter and Team.

Q: I've started an income portfolio with ahalf position in BPF,DR, and CHE. To follow are AD,ECI,VNR,CI,POW,POT, and a couple of HSE,WCP,PKI,IPL and GH. There will be about 20 stocks at about a 5% weighting. I'm thinking about the following to add a bit of stability. ISV,CI,CSW.A, ET,TMA,CSH.UN . please provide your thoughts. Thanks.