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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: Hi Guys
I'm interested in buying some ETF. Is there a place where I can compare the different ETF's. I'm looking at buying in different areas Canadian US International etc. Are there any you suggest I should look at. Primarily interested in dividend paying ones but some growth as well

thank you
Steve
Read Answer Asked by Steve on February 01, 2022
Q: Hi,

When reading questions or watching the news, I hear a lot of financial ratios being referenced to. I hear P/S, P/E, etc.. of a stock being high or low, but what is that in comparison to? Is it relative to the historical sector average or vs current peers? There are just so many metrics that it is kind of overwhelming for the average investor. I understand that if you're a professional financial analyst focusing on a certain sector doing this everyday, you know the important valuation metrics to look at within all the companies within a sector. But what about for us general investors that like to look at some of these important data points that hold stocks in various sectors?

At times, I want to compare important metrics of companies in similar sectors when looking at the best investment, say for example in tech semi conductors NVDA vs UCTT vs QCOM. Or if I wanted to compare ATZ vs GOOS VS DOL in a different sector. What are the best data points to compare? For example, div yield, P/E (NTM), P/S (NTM), EV/EBITA (NTM), FCF/Share (FY), PEG, EBITA CAGR (5Y), REV CAGR (5Y), Net Debt (FY), etc...These are just some examples that I see. I'm more a growth investor so I assume Rev CAGR would be an important data point to watch, for example. I would imagine that you compare different data points when comparing companies in the tech sector vs if you are comparing stocks within the energy sector. Such terms like operating cashflow, net cash, EPS/REV growth, debt, I hear lots from your answers so should these data points always be on my screen? Or is it more important to look at the data points in relation to how they are trending vs historical years and quarters of that specific company.

I have a watchlist of my portfolio with stocks in all different sectors that I look at daily and would like to keep track of important data points at a high level. For example, I have EBITDA(FY) as one column and can easily sort it so I can see which of companies are unprofitable, or CFO so I easily sort that to see which companies have negative cash flow from operations. What would be on your screen if you had to pick say 10-15 data columns and what is your financial analysis process like?

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Keith on February 01, 2022
Q: In a rising interest rate environment, what fixed income products perform relatively better? Would US TIPS or floating rate loans be an acceptable option?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by David on February 01, 2022
Q: Hello! When examining my portfolio there are definitely areas that are working and areas that clearly are not like emerging markets, gold, and high growth tech. These are a much smaller portion of my portfolio. However, does it make sense to exit these areas if one can get out with no loss/minimal loss and reallocate the money to something like Sunlife, Enbridge, BCE, etc.. if one also needs dividend income. The reason for owning gold, emerging markets/international equity and high growth was for diversification but if primary reason for investing is income/stability I'm just wondering if it makes any sense at all to own these other clearly more risky areas. Thanks and I look forward to your expertise!
Read Answer Asked by Neil on February 01, 2022
Q: Following up on my last question on buying SHOP in US or CDN funds, I am not sure I was clear with my question based on your answer. I have both a CDN and a. US TFSA investment account. As a Canadian living in Canada, I can buy the stock from either account. Does it make more sense to buy this company from my US account as they do most of their business in the US. In the long run will I benefit from doing it that way ?
Read Answer Asked by Robbie on January 30, 2022
Q: Two days ago I saw an article on 5i about new ipos and focusing on 10 to watch. I can't find it now. Is there a way to find it again? It was interesting. Ron
Read Answer Asked by Ronald on January 28, 2022
Q: Hello 5I,
If i own a stock on the us investment side of my portfolio in US dollars and transfer it to the Canadian side (because the stock trades on both exchanges IE: TD) does that transfer it to CDN dollars and show as a canadian stock or will it show as a US stock still becasue i initially bought in US dollars on us side? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Tyler on January 28, 2022
Q: Is there a website where you can tell what margin % has been assigned to a particular stock?
Read Answer Asked by Brad on January 27, 2022
Q: Hello Peter & Team,

MG is showing a P/E of 16.85 yet the PEG is a -2.64 meaning that the company is losing money or that the estimated growth rate for future earnings is negative, indicating that the earnings of the company are expected to decrease in the future. Have I read this/interpreted this correctly? And if so, is MG a company we should be staying a clear of right now? Or do I have this all wrong?

Thanks for all you do

gm

info sourced via MSN Money
Read Answer Asked by Gord on January 25, 2022
Q: Hi Peter & Team,

It may be my imagination, but I seem to remember reading somewhere - in the Questions section, I think -that 5i has a tool to help us calculate the ACB of our holdings. Please tell me it's not wishful thinking....

Thanks for all your help.

Molly
Read Answer Asked by Molly on January 25, 2022
Q: What is your impression of the analyst estimates for EPS and revenues in reports such as Refinitiv? Is there any other source that you find better?
Read Answer Asked by Leo on January 25, 2022
Q: Hi 5iresearch team
At finance.yahoo.com website, I was able to download the historical data of indexes (S&P500, Dow, and Nasdaq as well as the Candian TSX or any other ticker) in an excel file format (CSV). Now, it seems I can do that with Canadian tickers only. Is there a way to download the American companies historical data from the Yahoo site? If not is there another source that provides similar format data?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Ahmed on January 25, 2022
Q: Hi 5i - a two parter:
Firstly, are you aware of any website or other resource out there that offers easily accessible side by each display of the common evaluation metrics of companies in the same sector, subsector or industry?
(I ask because most sectors differ from other sectors in terms of what is a desirable P/E or P/CF or ROE or ROA etc. etc. so when I see what I might think are either healthy or unhealthy metrics for a particular company I don't have a readily available way to compare those metrics to companies operating in the same sphere to allow me to quickly determine if they truly are unhealthy or unhealthy, comparatively speaking.)
And secondly, is there any resource you are aware of that sets out what the average various evaluation metrics are for the different sectors / subsectors / industries or, alternatively, what could reliably be considered healthy metrics for each.
I'm not adverse to doing the work to come up with this information myself (although I expect I would have difficulty arriving at reliable information to fulfill part two of the above) but it would save me a lot of time and paper if that information had already been gathered. I suspect others might find the sort of sector specific database I'm looking for helpful too.
Thanks!
Peter
Read Answer Asked by Peter on January 25, 2022
Q: I agree with and often quote you, " often nothing is the right thing to do". That, and learning the importance of managing position size are very possibly the two main reasons my portfolio has grown to the size it is. It wasnt all luck that I trimmed a few stocks that had grown to oversize positions early last Nov. My biggest winners are mostly my biggest decliners in this down draft, the recent trimming eased the pain somewhat. It's not just your stock picks making people $ , thanks for that!
Read Answer Asked by Charles on January 25, 2022