Investment Q&A

Q: I would like your comments please on Norbord.

John

Q: My dad has had 70% of his portfolio in bonds. He is satisfied with a 6% capital return per year, prefers companies with a 10y history, and rarely looks at his holdings. In Canada, he owns a fund plus AW, PZA, REI.un, BPY, CAR.un, HR.un, BNS, SLF, BCE, T and the etf ZPR. All are in the green. Last week, he bought a small amount of Concordia. He wants to buy two more "blood on the street" stocks that pay > 2% dividend, have little chance of going bankrupt, and that have a good chance of doubling over 7 years. what would you suggest? I'm thinking AutoCanada and Cameco. Thank you!

Q: The price of OSB is rising quickly. Norbord stock price has already appreciated considerably in the past few months but I understand it may do very well if the product price remains at its current level. Would you consider it a buy at the current level? Would you consider Norbord a better investment at this time that WEF?

Q: Hello, I have some stocks that I am planning to buy in the future. They are SJ, CSU, BYD.UN, SIS, NFI, KXS, RRX, PEY. Could you please rank these stocks from the safest to the riskiest? In your opinion, do you recommend these stocks for a long term hold? Also, which one in the list do you think has the most potential? Thank you.

Q: Hi,
I am new to investing and am building a diversified long term portfolio. Im looking for strong long term growth to eventually turn into TFSA dividend income. I have some canadian real estate exposure through REITS (using drip programs to help portfolio growth). I have some diversified US exposure through VFV and VGG. I would like to add more Canadian diversified exposure. Would you recommend picking individual stocks (maybe starting with Canadian banks and using their DRIPs as well) and branching out from there? Or would I be better off for total value growth with some low cost Canadian ETF? If you think the ETF, could you recommend a few please? If you think specific stocks could you recommend a few also. Finally, for specifics, which of the Canadian banks do you like the best?

Thanks 5i, Ill understand if this counts as 2 questions instead of 1.

Q: Wanted to add something to Bryan's question about Concordia, relating to Cohodes.

1- Cohodes shorted OpenText during the financial crisis. The stock instead went up and shortly after, he was forced to close his hedge fund. OTC is up 410% since his short.
2- Cohodes is known for liking "a fight". He likes shorting because of the confrontation aspect.
3- Cohodes often has little facts, but succeeds at making retail investors second-guess themselves, at instilling doubt.
4- If you watch his appearances on BNN, you're likely helping his cause, because BNN will see a higher viewership and bring him back on.
5- Best to not comment about Cohodes' points of view, on any social media (stocktwits, stockhouse, twitter). That only makes him more popular.

Q: MSI dropped rather precipitously this AM, the day after their general meeting, yesterday.Am I missing something or did something happen that would cause this either at the meeting or elsewhere? Could I have your comments on this stock as an investment? Thanks, as always, for your sage advice.

Q: Hi, I would appreciate your thoughts about AQN and HWD last quarter results.

regards,

Q: My 22 yo son recently opened an RSP. I wish to invest in one stock in his RSP (limited $ at this time - his TFSA is in order). I believe that good companies seldom/never come on sale. Given the concept of capital preservation for RSPs, cannot use cap loss, very long time horizon, etc, I like the 3 companies identified, and am open to others. There is no need to shoot the lights out - slow and steady will win the race.

Can you see any difficulty with any of the 3 companies I have it narrowed down to, and is there one or two others I should consider (don't care for securities like SH in RSP).

Thanks in advance. Bob

Q: Back in April you recommended SJ, KXS, OTC, and PBH to someone who was starting a TFSA , and all except for SJ have taken off...
I am trying to help a Senior who doesn't even own ONE stock .
I presume in his situation would you recommend the usual SLF, and BNS ?

Now that these stocks have already performed so well , should he wait for a summer pullback on these ?... or are there others that he should consider ?

Thanks so much

Q: My first question Re AGT was why the huge discrepancy between the Q1 EPS ($1.12) reported on the Financials and the $0.20 reported on the TMX research page for AGT.

It turns out that although it was not mentioned in the News Release in the Q1 MD&A they did in fact report “Adjusted EPS” of $0.20.

It looks like to calculate the “Adjusted EPS” they ignore any Unrealized FX effect.

There was a VERY LARGE Unprecedented $10.959m “Provision for tax” reported.

Do you have any thoughts / comments on this?

Q: My assumption is a 2 for1 split yesterday. My Globe watchlist shows 244 shares at approx $33.00 as opposed to $66.00 approx? Thanks for the good work you do for all us small retail investors.
David

Q: I bought HBC last year. The price of this stock drop substantially (a 50% loss in a 2% weight in my portfolio). I am thinking to sell the stock now and buy something else. To your opinion, 1) Should I wait or sell? 2) Will the price of the stock drop further? Thanks

Q: I am wondering why this stock is trading slightly above the offer price of C$4.50 for taking it private, when this would appear to be a done deal?

Q: I have been holding, and hoping, for Air Transat (trz) for over 2 years now. My loss on paper is 30%.
Does it make sense to hold further for a recovery or is it better to bite the bullet and redeploy in the same sector ? But where ?

Many thanks,

Jacques

Q: Your thoughts on this company? Is it worth adding to at this level?

Q: Are there similarities between toy and dhx ?
Would spin master be something that Dhx media would
look at to buy or Disney? What is the p/e and projected growth rate for spin master and is it reasonable?

Q: Hi 5 I -- I don't know what happened: I thought I had input Alterra in the drop-down menu -- Alterra Power, AXY is the first question. Here is the re-submitted portion, in its entirety.

"The last comment I can find on this company is August 2015. May I have your updated views? I am thinking of a 2% position. Also -- Rick Rule talked about Ivanhoe Mines on BNN last night as if it were the Second Coming. Is it worth all the hype? Notwithstanding the nice price movement it has had in the last few months. What weight does it deserve in a portfolio of "mid-to-high risk tolerance". Thanks. (Please take 2 credits, for 2 questions.)"

Q: A recent article by Thane Stenner in ROB suggests private equity as a natural hedge to swings in public equity and that the "smart money" which he implies is High Net Worth individuals are shifting more assets to private from public. For someone who is presently an aspiring member to the HNW club what would you suggest to participate in this area? I am currently holding both OCX and BAM, and looked at CVG (too illiquid), all of which have some fingers in this pie. Thanks, J.

link to article:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/high-net-worth-investors-taking-cautious-approach/article29775556/

Q: Could you please explain the US index "BIXX" & what it is intended to represent. Thank you.