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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: This is a followup question for my question from last week about payout ratios.

I understand your reasons for using cash flow over earnings to calculate payour ratios. Thanks for clarifying. But when I use your posted numbers to calculate it for ENB, I get:

Payout ratio = Dividend / cash flow
= Dividend / (Price / Price to cash flow)
=2.684 / (46.69/9.7)
= 56%

But, in the question I asked previously, you stated 37% was the payou ratio for ENB. It was correct for BCE, however (3.02/(54.57/6.5)=36%). I guess I am not calculating it correctly.

How do you calculate your payour ratios based on cash flow?

Also, since it is such an important number that others don’t use (based on cash flow) could you include it in your company profile?

Thanks again,

Fed

Read Answer Asked by Federico on July 09, 2018
Q: A few years ago my former broker recommended stochta.com which shows free technical charts and more. For charts of Canadian companies add .c to the symbol. I hope this is useful to some members. Thanks for the great service, Frank
Read Answer Asked by Frank on July 09, 2018
Q: With reference to Sheldon's question on Recognia and MACD crossovers, a free resource for positive and negative crossovers can be found here:
http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.scan
Read Answer Asked by Randy on July 06, 2018
Q: Payout ratios

I am confused about payout ratios. I have read here several times that you prefer to stick with dividend income stocks that have payout ratios below 50%. You have also suggested recently that the following were good solid choices for dividend income stocks. Your website does not include payout ratios, but I suspect your calculation is different from those I have found elsewhere. Below are the payout ratios I found in other places. As you can see, they are mostly above 50%, and some are above 100%!

Could you please comment on your calculation of payout ratios, that have these below 50%, or why the high ratio is acceptable presently?

Thanks again.

PWF 72%
BCE 97%
CU 116%
TRP 78%
ENB 182%
TRI 169%
QSR 79%
AQN 130%
T 82%
Read Answer Asked by Federico on July 06, 2018
Q: Hi All, I have a 30 yr old son who is very bullish on cryptocurrency. He is quite excited about a new product, similar to "acorn" which I believe operates as a trading platform in the form of a downloadable app., and allows trade, buy, sell crypto with ease. I think I know your answer, but what do you think of investing in this idea? Is there an existing platform?
2nd question - What can you tell me about Clovyr? Does it trade on the TSX or DOW?
Thank you! The 5i team has helped me invest wisely over the years, and sleep well at night. I appreciate your research and members questions.
Read Answer Asked by Donna on July 06, 2018
Q: With reference to Sheldon's question on Recognia and MACD crossovers, I have been a subscriber to Vector Vest for a number of years. They provide both fundamental and technical information which I have used very successfully. They offer trial subscriptions for ~ $10.00 USD.
Read Answer Asked by Martin on July 06, 2018
Q: Recognia provides a service of Technical Alerts to at least iTrade and T D Waterhouse, and perhaps others. This past weekend they have changed their platform for technical alerts drastically, leaving me to seek out another platform that issues technical alerts.
I use the MACD indicator in my alerts amongst 200+ stocks that I have researched and screened on a fundamental basis. Due to the number of stocks I follow it is essential that I have a technical alert service that alerts me when the MACD crosses either positively or negatively, indicating a buy or a sell. They used to email me a list of any of the stocks on my watchlist when it did a cross over after the close.
Now that Recognia no longer provides the service I am looking for, can you suggest one (I am willing to pay),

Thanks in advance


Sheldon
Read Answer Asked by Sheldon on July 05, 2018
Q: In reference to Donald’s question about the Td GIC linked to banks and utilities:
I agree generally with the reply provided by 5i. However, in your response you talk about “going to cash” and I think this may be confusing. The product offered is a GIC and is insured. The principal is protected so there isn’t an issue with “going to cash” in a bad market. You will get your money back at the end of the term. It is essentially a cash investment all along, although one is locked in for the term.
What motivated me to write this was the deceptive way, in my opinion, TD is offering this product. It says the MINIMUM return is 2% and states quite clearly that this is an annual return on the main webpage describing the GIC. However, if you read through the prospectus (so dry and complicated it will give you a migraine) or click on the tiny footnote you will see that the 2% is actually a 3 year compounded return of 0.66% per annum. The 2% is a total return. If the market goes down or sideways, you will get a whopping $20 per $1,000 invested over 3 years.
I am a long time TD client and shareholder but I am disturbed by what I feel are decptive practices and the “pushing” of products on Canadians. This is approaching Wells Fargo behaviour, IMHO. It can’t end well for anyone. Sorry to take up your Q&A time with this but I feel the investment community needs to speak out about this.
Good luck fellow investors!
John
Read Answer Asked by john on July 05, 2018
Q: TD is offering Market Growth GIC’s and suggesting “earning up to 18.8%” on Canadian banks and utilities. Guaranteeing the principal.

For a retired income focused investor would this be a meaningful part of the fixed income part of a portfolio?

Too good to be true?

Thanks for your help.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on July 05, 2018
Q: I'm a young investor (early 30s) and have previously had all of my portfolio in equities. I'm concerned about risk and want to put about a quarter of the portfolio into safer, fixed income type investments. I'm struggling to understand the benefits of investing in GICs (currently with rates of 2.8-3.5%) vs Bond ETFs (like VAB or ZAG). Can you help explain the difference and benefits between Bond ETFs and investing in a direct GIC? Can you recommend the better choice for me; GICs or Bond ETFs?
Read Answer Asked by Michael on July 04, 2018
Q: Seems likely we’re headed for a bit more inflation. Assuming this thesis plays out, which sectors do you think should benefit and which sectors should be avoided? Are there specific companies that could benefit greatly and which companies could be badly hurt?
Read Answer Asked by Les on July 03, 2018
Q: I am purchasing a US stock, is it best to purchase in cdn dollars or in US dollars in a RSP account. I am able to do both. Ultimately (years) down the road I will withdrawal in cdn
Read Answer Asked by Scott on July 03, 2018
Q: You reference on your website that you follow 70 companies. Do you have a link to those 70 companies? I have looked through the site without success on that point. As a new user, this would be very useful. Thanks Rob Ward
Read Answer Asked by Rob on July 03, 2018
Q: New member here. Have been unsuccessful finding payout ratios in any of your company info. Do you provide it? I did see you recommend PR based on Cash Flow. Where would one also find CF? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by John on June 29, 2018
Q: I like the overview that is provided there.

However, with diversification and sector blends being frequent topics of interest and sources of questions, it would be helpful, at least for me, if 5i were to provide a sector overview each month as well as a frame of reference for managing our own portfolios. For example, technology 25% of TSX in May, up 3% over 2017; etc by sector and in a simple chart format. Any chance of that happening?

In the meantime, where can I find that kind of information. I have looked at the TSX.com website as well as the RBC Direct Investing sites and been unsuccessful.

Thanks for you help and guidance here.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on June 28, 2018
Q: Hi Peter/Ryan
Are there any ethical type ETFs (CDN, US and foreign) or low cost mutual funds that you could recommend? Any thoughts on this approach.

Much thanks
Read Answer Asked by Stuart on June 28, 2018
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