Investment Q&A

Q: You seem to like Covalon a lot and I wonder what you are seeing that it might be worth investing in.
It looks to me that their product line is not very diversified....and a Chinese copycat could easily move in.
If you had a choice between COV,KXS or CLS what would be your pick be in order without looking at sectors?

Q: With the major devastation of some cities in the Southern USA in late summer I invested in Norbord as they have several plants in the vicinity manufacturing building materials. I invested in Norbord in August and the stock price started to climb in September until 2 things happened:
a fund managed by BAM had a secondary offering of Norbord shares owned by that fund at a selling price of $42.50 and TD downgraded the stock after upgrading it the week before. At approximately the same time Norbord increased it's dividend from $.50 to $.60. With the secondary offering I suspect that a number of the fund holders sold the Norbord shares realizing a quick profit but driving the market value down because a large number shares becoming available (approximately 4-5% of the issued shares). I expected a quick recovery but the TD downgrade seems to have affected the market value. Why did TD downgrade this stock? I think this is an excellent opportunity to buy this stock but I have not been able to find out why the downgrade by TD. Thanks
Mike

Q: Greetings 5i,

Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) is to acquire a minority stake close to 10% in Canopy Growth (TSX:WEED). What are your thoughts and does this open up the USA for Canopy Growth? How will STZ benefit?

Cheers!

Q: Peter and His Wonder Team
Thank you for your past analysis of these two separate companies. I now have another dilemma. FLEX has just had a great quarter and the stock has hit a new 52 week high of $18.01. TD has a TP of $21.00...so all looks good. On the other hand CLS just had a miss and weaker guidance...being punished today...at $13 plus. You have said the story is still intact and they should improve. So... on the one hand I have FLEX which I think I could call a value play vs CLS which I will call at this point a more contrarian play. So in light of there fundamentals going forward which company has great appreciation? In other words is it too late to buy FLEX...better value with CLS in the long run?
Thanks for your opinion...
Dr.Ernest Rivait

Q: From what i see in the comments of the last months, these 8 companies seems to be among your US favorite stocks.
1- am I right about those 8?
2- would you like to add a few US names, could be in any sectors
3- I buy companies with a 10 year + timeline. A lot of companies i'm interest in are in the technology sector and I tend to be overweighted in that sector. Its hard for me to imagine technology not directly corrolated to industrial or consumer staples growth for exemple. Does it make senses to you to balance a technology overweight (30-40%) portfolio by diversifying among the technology sub-sectors?
4- I understand that you focus on Canadian companies. I also understand that your are conflicting free and that you mostly invest in US stocks. However, I'm pretty sure that a significant proportions of 5i members would be willing to pay for some form of US stocks advices. Maybe a US portfolio or a US favorise stock list. (maybe with a minimum market cap limit so your decisions would still be conflict free) Your services are unique and are a benediction for small investors. It would be a great opportunity for us to have them for the US market too. I'm sure a survey among members would prove me right.

thanks again for your amazing services

Q: Comments on todays news? How would you speculate the stock will react?

Q: I have a 650 share holding in Aecon ,with a 20% gain? With stock trading roughly $3.50 below the takeover price , do you recommend holding on with the optimistic view that It will receive government approval ? And will it be difficult to get over the net benefit to Canada hurdle?
It seems like the Chinese company is carrying some baggage.
Thanks for the great service.
Philip

Q: Hi I am looking to do some tax loss selling. DGC DOWN 25%, GUD DOWN 13%, RNW DOWN 5%, ENB down 5% and SIS down 4%.
Could you give me some options to repurchase for each company if I decide to sell any or all of the above?

Q: Hello Peter,
I am very fortunate to have recently received an inheritance and am considering the following as inclusion into a TFSA. (SIS) Savaria, (SYZ) Sylogist, (ZCL) ZCL Composites, and (XTC) Exco Technologies.
I would appreciate any feedback you could offer regarding these considerations.
Thank you,
Rick

Q: I have held these loss stocks in my well-diversified portfolio for many years. I am willing to wait for a turnaround and do not need the cash. Which if any would you recommend selling now if you consider holding them to be a lost cause. Thank you

Q: Hello 5i, Can I get your assessment on Dol? It seems fully valued at this point. I have a 1/4 position and wondering when to to pull the trigger on this to buy more or should I but more. I like to hold for a few yrs or until the story does not make sense anymore. Is that the case for Dol?

Q: Has the market overreacted to the recent CCO loss? I have made some decent return buying on dips the past few years and selling several days/weeks later as the stock recovers to near its pre-dip low. Do you think this is another blip I can profit from very shorterm? Have I missed something major?

Q: For a 40 year old, starting to save for retirement. Currently have in an RRSP these stocks: TOY, ATD.B SIS and TD. Now have room for two more holdings. Can you suggest 2 or 3 please?

Q: I didn't know the markets were so emotional , TOY having sympathy for Toys R Us big drop today , what emotion would be attached to EIF's rather large gain today ??Confidence ? ..are short sellers finished with EIF? Have a great day.

Q: With Aecon in the news, what is your opinion of IBG and should I instead focus on a large cap like STN? Thanks.

Q: Hi 5i
Regarding the question asked by JS:
I think your answer is right on the money. I have been holding TransForce for a few years now and I saw some optimism and a bit of a run-up leading into the earnings. A slight miss had to be disappointing to many.
Another thing however, is that their package and courier revenue declined. Some holders of the stock, myself included, were hoping that that P&C would continue to grow with the growth of ecommerce. On a day where Amazon is showing huge gains in sales, we are not seeing that "trickle down" to the P&C business of TFII. In other words, TFI does not seem to be benefitting from the big gains in ecommerce generally. That's a problem because one would have liked growing P&C revenue to smooth out the ups and downs of trucking revenue. I think some investors don't see a primarily trucking play as long hold because it will be rather cyclical.
Anyhow, for what its worth I am holding, as the company still produces nice cash, pays down debt, buys back shares and has increased its dividend several times over the last few years.

Cheers
John

Q: Company just reported a great quarter with good guidance and a 20% dividend increase. Stock declines 3% any idea why?? looks like the dividend has gone from .40 to 2.40 this year alone

Q: I was reading your answer to an earlier question on FSV earnings. The diluted earnings per share were 0.42 vs 0.43 a year ago and expectations of .50 for the quarter.
Which metric would you consider more relevant - diluted eps or the adjusted eps of 0.74? I would appreciate if you could provide the reasoning as it applies to FSV.
Expensive no doubt, but would you consider it a buy?
Regards.

Q: My company has announced an employee share offer plan. I would like your opinion on the pros and cons of employee share offer plans in general, and specifically on the plan being offered to me.

I work for a large European company (20B euro market cap; 65,000 employees in 50 countries), and the stock trades in Europe. This is not a small start-up company.

The key terms of the offer are: (a) 20% discount on the share price, (b) 1 free share for every 4 shares subscribed up to 10 matching shares, (c) account management fees paid by the company, (d) investment locked-in for 5 years (to Dec 2022) (except in the case of early redemption). I really don’t like being locked in for 5 years, but I guess that is the price to pay for a 20% discount.

I have been burned before on an employee share offer program (dot com era), so am always questioning why companies ask employees for help. The employer always promotes how good it is for employees (e.g. 20% discount), but what is in it for the company? If the company needs to raise money why not just go to the stock market? I don’t buy the pride of ownership in the company you work for, blah, blah, at least not with a very large company (I am one of 65,000 employees).

I am skeptical when employers tell employees how great something is for them. Been burned before 15 years ago when they told us how great it is for us to switch from a DB pension plan to a DC pension plan. They neglected to tell us how much better it is for them if we switched from the DBPP to the DCPP.

p.s. Maybe one day you can do a blog on pros and cons of employee share offers, and what an employee should look out for.

Q: Good morning

Thinking about the possible divestitures that POT will likely make to get approval of the merger. Are assets in situations like this typically sold before or after the merger?

If the assets are sold after the merger and at a premium to book value, it would seem the premium would be shared among shareholders of both companies even though the premium was not anticipated at the time the company values were set for the merger.

It would make more sense to me to sell prior to the merger and distribute the premium over book to the POT shareholders. Of course, if the premium is insignificant then it is a moot point.

Anyway, just curious to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for all your help.
Peter