Investment Q&A

Q: Hi 5i: As part of my RIF portfolio I hold three ETFs, namely one S&P (45%), one TSX (35%) and one for developed ex North America (20%). Do those percentages seem reasonable to you? I also have a chunk of the portfolio reserved for fixed (safe) income, so I'm not worried about safety, just efficiency.

Q: In response to another subscriber's question you said you "...would be more comfortable with Nestle. It trades at 19X earnings, with a 3.4% dividend. Debt is high, but so is free cash flow. Solid earnings growth is also expected from the company. It does not have a great record of beating earnings estimates, but overall we think it would also be fine as a consumer sector investment."

Nestle trades as NSRGY on the pink sheets. What would be the tax treatment if I bought and held this in my RRIF account? My understanding is that Swiss withholding taxes would be deducted at source and the after tax yield would be much less than 3.4%.

Q: Magna pays their dividends in USD. On their website they indicate that their dividends are "eligible" thus eligible for DTC. How does one be as tax-efficient as possible, not pay brokerage a conversion fee for USD to CAD conversion, and apply DTC? Cannot apply DTC if held in TFSA or RSP.

Q: Hi Peter and team
When making a diversification spreadsheet of my portfolio, how can I properly allocate my stocks in to the different groups like tech, telecom, energy etc?
Is there a place where I can find out.
Thanks
Margita

Q: There seems a fanatical feeling that Reits and Utlities will be impacted by a higher interest rate moves by USA.How does that affect Canadian companies if Canada doesn't follow suit or by very little interest moves.Which Reits do you feel won;t be impacted ?

Q: Why do you only show CTC.A (non-voting). Is there a reason one shouldn't buy CTC (voting) other than that CTC.A has a better yield? I assume you don't believe owning non-voting is a big deal.

Q: Dec 05/16 ? asked by Shyam.

I believe your answer is incorrect as follows:
Buying the stock today (Dec 5/16) would settle in 3 days on Dec 8/16. But the stock is already trading ex-dividend on Dec 8/16.

Q: I am not sure if my question was cut of. I did it on my phone. I would like to get your perspective on the number of companies that should be in various portfolios e.g. Income portfolio, growth portfolio and capital appreciation portfolio. For example 20 - 5% each, 10 - 5% each and 20 - 2.5 % each or some other combination.
mike

Q: My 20 year old son has asked Santa for a book about investing this Christmas. He has a sizeable investment account, having received inheritance gifts from both his grandfather and uncle. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you.

Q: I have a portfolio consisting of mostly stocks, but also some etf's (ex IWO, ZPR, etc...) and BRK.B. Could you offer some advice on how the ETFs and conglomerate companies fit in to overall sector allocations? For example, in my case I have very little consumer discretionary exposure via stocks, but obviously some through IWO & BRK.B. I'm trying to figure out the best way to measure these for sector allocation purposes.

As always, thanks for the great service.

Q: Hello 5i
I have been reading a great deal of your responses that include comments implying a short term top developing in many 2016 good stocks.
Rotation out of the winners.
Year end Selling
Manger Positioning
Easy to sell winners for cash

And on the other side, 5i continues to recommend many of these names as investable today.

How is an investor to reconcile buy recommendations(at what feels like short term high) with declining stock prices and the scepter of a January pull back after the 2016 tax year passes.....and when the typical selling period begins for previous year winners?

If one is not a trader, what investor action is to be taken to ensure long term success with volatile names that appear to be in decline today?

(as a note: I may not be in some of these names without 5i.....good(a few nice gain positions-thanks) and bad(dealing with volatility)

Thanks
Dave

Q: I have a question about this press release about share repurchases from CGI Group. The CGI group is intending to repurchase Class A shares on the TSX. I'm a holder of shares of CGI on the NYSE. Can you tell me more about how this will affect my investment and are NYSE shareholder getting the short end of the stick?

Q: Where can I find the date of next Earnings Report for Canadian companies?

(Zacks is good for US companies.)

Thanks!

Q: I am looking for short term (1 year) fixed income investments.With rates soo low,I have found best rates at People's Trust,Alterna Bank and Oaken.They are all CDIC .
What is your opinion of these 3 institutions and if too risky what alternatives would you suggest? As well, is the interest covered with deposit insurance.
You advise is most appreciated,
Thanks
Jean

Q: I notice that you are hosting the "How to Pick a Stock" webinar with Virtual Brokers. I also see that they had a very favourable write up in the recent Globe article. Is this a broker that you recommend? (I haven't yet done my research)

Q: When buying a US stock is there more than the exchange rate to contend? I believe I read somewhere there could also be a fee. How does one find this out ?
Thanks
Jean

Q: Just a response to the reader about DRIP. I just called webroker and asked them to put my dividend stocks on a DRIP. They can do it for just the stocks you want or for all of them. It was done in a flash. ( unlike many "please hold" calls!)

Q: Hi Ryan, Peter

Apparently there is some sector rotation going on. I noticed some quality names can go on sale pretty quickly, could you name some non-resources that look good to buy.
Great job as usual!

Q: I was looking up the ROE for OTC as of Sept 30, 2016. My first look was in Yahoo Finance where the ROE is given as 49.3% ttm (trailing 12 months). Sounded high, so I checked Reuters Investment Profile via my BNS site, for the same date, where the number shown is 14.94 MRI ( Most Recent Interim). HUGE DIFFERENCE!!! What am I to believe?
Can you please explain how this could happen...give me your opinion of the quality of YF data...and advise the best source for 3 yr avg ROE data. (Sure be nice if I could find it here)
Thank you.
Brian

Q: Hi Peter and Team,

You recently said in an answer to another member "We would prefer that most investors have some exposure to all sectors and don't need to play these silly rotation games." I just want to express my gratitude for this valuable advice. Also, you always stress that we should look at our total portfolio, not just individual accounts when considering sector allocation. Well, it took me a long time, but I prepared a simple spreadsheet that looks at all our accounts, and the results have been very revealing. (We were grossly overweight in some sectors and grossly underweight in others). You get a far different picture looking at ALL accounts, so thanks for this sage advice as well!