Investment Q&A

Q: WSP beat earnings whereas Stanec (STN) missed. Safe to assume that you would prefer WSP right now and that it is still ok to initiate a position?

Q: What are your thoughts on the month slide of MCB (aside from oil price)? Is it a buying opportunity?

Q: Peter and Team,

It looks like Sunlife absolutely destroyed out there last quarter. They had big beat on earnings and it looks like big growth in net income.

With the 4.5% pop today, its now 6.5% of my portfolio. Should I start trimming this a bit to rebalance other names>?

Q: Please comment on STN's earnings and the subsequent drop in share price. Thank you. Don.

Q: Hi,
I do not understand why you include BEP.UN in your income portfolio.
This is what I read on Disnat :
P/E Ratio 145.27
Earnings/Share $ 0.26
Dividend/Share $ 1.66

The income is great, but the payout ratio seems unsustainable. Is the capital safe? Can you comment?
Thanks

Q: I cannot find any information on Home Capital's site about the geographical breakdown of their mortgages. Finally I found a Seeking Alpha article suggesting that about 3% of their loans are oil patch related and that the majority of their loans are in Southern Ontario and in the GTA specifically. Is this correct and where might this information come from so I can get more detail? Thank-you.

Q: Are you there, Peter? Its me, John.

Sorry, I had to start off with the Judy Blume reference for a laugh to prevent myself from crying over High Liner's quarterly results. Did you get a chance to listen to HLF's conference call? If so, any further insights?

Do you see anything in the report that potentially jeopardizes the business, or was it simply just a bad quarter. I have held HLF for years now and am use to them missing estimates (5 out of the last 6 reports have missed) but cant remember a time when you started an answer with "yikes", as you did with the last HLF question,(LOL).

Lastly, do you think there was any use for High Liner management to halt the stock for three minutes before issuing the earnings report?

Thanks, again. Looking forward to resubscribing with 5i soon.

John

Q: Seems to trade at a fairly low volume though it seems a decent stock with USA business,why the lack of interest here you think ?

Q: Any thoughts on earnings? Thank-you, once again.

Q: The stock price has spiked in last week and was wondering if you feel it is a bit ahead of itself...perhaps finding a bid due to weakness in other sectors? I have owned it since the high $90's.
Many thanks as always!

Q: Hello Peter & team, Both AYA and IT are not feeling too well today! Should we worry?
Thank you!

Q: Hello Peter & Co,
There are obviously a variety of metrics to measure the valuation of the stock. I usually look at the ratio ROE/forward PE which should be above 1; you mention in your report on BIN that, due to its capital structure, EV/Sales and EV/EBITDA are better metrics. Could you please explain? How does the average retail investor parse the various ways of measuring valuations?
Thanks,
Antoine

Q: Dear Agent. Is ACU.TO stock worth holding in my Portfolio. Eddie.

Q: Peter; It appears that HLF missed on all fronts- can I have your opinion please? Thanks.Rod

Q: Your comment on their earning , dividend increase again all metric look good, impressive AUM increase. Look like a good buy these level.
thanks!

Q: Hi, my position in HCG has fallen to about 2.5% (my full position is 4%). Would advise continuing to wait , or are you comfortable going back to full position yet?

Thank you

Q: Your thoughts on the earnings.
Tom

Q: I wonder if you can comment on the recent price appreciation of DSG, it has become quite expensive is this a concern, especially when they report their quarterly results in September? I believe their current P/E ratio is about 83.

Peter

Q: What is your opinion of selling puts underneath the stock - I was thinking of october 27 or 28 puts (the premiums are quite high given the recent volatility) - as I would get either the premium or the stock at a much cheaper price? This assumes, of course, that the company remains solid. If I find out anything that is fundamentally wrong, I would buy back the puts quickly and take the loss, but the loss would be much less than would be the case by owning the stock outright. I am very aware of margin issues and use it in this easy very judiciously.

Q: Read the latest report with great interest as it explained the operations of the company to me. It was a revelation to me that there is an argument that could be made that dealerships should be somewhat recession proof given that when new car sales decline, used sales and repairs should increase which shold maintain profitablility That does not seem to have happened with this company.

Given that repairs and financing activities are the most profitable area, is iss possible that ACQ has not proven adept at increasing this side of the business in a way that is better than most? It is one thing to acquire a dealership but it would seem to that the real signs of effective management are the synergies that develop due to the growth. I am thinking of a company like BOYD in this situation which has grown very well.

Are you able to break out how much profit each of their segments contributes? To me, these are the valuable metrics and profits have increased but I am left wondering why the stock has been hit so heavily. Is it because investors really don't understand the business model or is there an expectation that the profits from other lines be growing even more? I do appreciate new sales is a good "headline" number and those sales contribute to earnings but repairs should be a very solid profit gerneator.

Thanks for you insight.

Paul F.