Investment Q&A

Q: Peter and Gang:
I need to bump up the consumer sector of my portfolio. It seems like a lot of these stocks are at or near their 52 wk. high, particularly after the little "Target bump". Which two stocks would you recommend,and although timing is difficult do you see now as a good time to add. What do you think of ATD.B & L vs. CTC and WN. I am looking at a 10 year plus hold.

Thanks for all you do

Phil

Q: I am looking for a growth story for my non-reg account. Any thoughts on purchasing either CXR or GUD (or perhaps both) at their current valuations. I currently have no healthcare exposure and am looking to rotate some funds out of Cdn bank holdings into more growth oriented stories.

Thank You

Q: Peter and Staff
Positions in stocks below are not large,wondering if you would sell any one of them in favour of splitting proceeds with two of the others ,if so which and in which order to replace it with

AIM,CHE.UN,CJR.B,DIV,DII.B,KBL,MTL,PZA,TCK.B,TMA,WSP

Q: Can't seem to find out what happened at WEF. Dropped nearly 25% in the last 10 days. One director resigned & another officer - Cairo sold out his position. Am I missing something else?
Thank you.

Q: Can you give your outlook on "Bomber" after it has suffered the recent downdraft?

Q: Finning is (almost) at a 5 year low. Would appreciate your view on buying now for a capital appreciation in a 2-3 year time frame. Also is the dividend reasonably safe? Thanks.

Q: The Bombardier common shares have taken a big hit in the last few days but why does that affect the bombardier preferred series bbd.pr.c

Q: Hi Peter and team,
On reading Antoine's question re allocation and re-balancing, he lists 12 sectors, the 12th combines Utilities/Telcos. I am trying to correct my allocations but am using the 10 that I find on TD Direct Investing Website. Is there some basic standard that you would recommend that we use? It appears to be a very inexact science and is thus difficult to put in practice. Thanks for the continued, excellent service.

Ted

Q: What do you think about Russel Metals at the current price. Like most stocks with energy exposure, it is down, but wondering about your opinion on a constant dividend and price upside.
Thanks
Jim

Q: Hello team: I was interested in the earnings release just given for SVC. The earning beat is good but I am worried about the expense and margin side. The CEO has spoke about the margin compression and increased marketing and R&D increase. What are your thoughts.

I was reviewing Canacol and have noticed that they have a great opportunity going forward. The new concession that they got for a song and the lock up agreements for there natural gas contracts. What is your thoughts on this going forward.

Thank you as always Jason

Q: Peter and Team,

I have a 6.9% weighting in Amaya gaming that will be getting reduced today as I had been selling call options the past few months on part of my position. I expect to be called away today so my weighting will drop down to 4.1% (thanks to you guys, this will be like the 4th or 5th time I've trimmed this due to big profits and portfolio management... thank you!).

With the cash, I am thinking of adding to a 2.2% weighting in SLF that I initiated a couple months ago and intended to increase to 5% over time. Other options are add to Badger Daylighting which I like very much but has been smashed with the oil sector and has now fallen to 3.6% of the portfolio, add to Corby Spirit and Wine which has been great and is now about 3.9% of the portfolio, or finally initiate a new position in Brookfield Renewable Energy.

For reference, I am fairly diversified with 90% stocks, 10% bonds and the stock portfolio has been modeled after 5i models (although it takes time to get there).

Thanks for your thoughts!

Q: Hello Peter & Co,
I'm another year less young (71) and thinking of moving 15-20% of my RRIF portfolio into fixed income vehicles; I could reduce each holding on a pro-rata basis (which is easy to do) or I could exit 10 positions (which is much harder to do).
Which of the following would you select to exit?
Consumer discretionary 5.2% of portfolio: LNR,MG
Energy 6.9%: HWO,TOU,VET,WCP
Financials 8.1%: BNS,EFN,HCG,TD
Health/Pharma 12.6%: CCT,CPH,CXR,GUD,RX,XHC
Industrials/Transport 8.5%: CCL,CHE.UN,CNR,SJ
Infrastructure 4.6%: BIP.UN,STN
Materials 4.0%: IFP,WEF
Pipelines/Midstream 11.5%: ENB,IPL,KEY,PPL
Retail 5.3%: ATD,DOL
Services 7.4%: BYD.UN,FSV,CGX
Technology 16.9%: CSU,DSG,ESL,GIB,MDA,OTC
Util/Telco/RE 9.0%: ALA,BCE,BEP.UN,TCN
I greatly appreciate your input
Tony

Q: I am starting a TFSA and have a maximum of $36,500 to invest.
Can you recommend two stocks in each sector for diversification?
I am 24 and can handle some risk.
Also is CXI in the financial sector and which two stocks out of these GUD, CRH, PHM, NMHC would you pick in the healthcare sector?
I alrady own CRH.
Thanks for all your help

Q: 9:01 AM 1/15/2015

Hello Peter
I am considering buying shares in 3 or 4 of these companies for our annual contributions to our TFSAs, and to our Cash account, and would intend to hold them for many years.

I have several concerns with these stocks, mainly high debt and high Payout Ratios [POR] on some:

ET : 69% POR, very low debt, 8 year rising dividend... looks good to me!

AD : 135% POR, very low debt, 7 year rising dividend

DH : 115% POR, Debt/Equity = 1.0, and 5 year rising dividend + special dividends

AW.UN : 118% POR, Debt/Equity = 0.6, dividend flat for 4 years

CSH.UN : POR very high, Debt/Equity = 3.5, dividend flat for 5 years

CSW.A : 91.5% POR, zero debt, and 5 year rising dividend + special dividends

All have reasonable dividend yields. I am looking for companies that will best withstand severe corrections and have a high probabiluty of continuing and increasing dividends.
I would appreciate your comments and suggestions on these and would ask you to please rank them in order of preference.

We always appreciate your excellent advice,
Thank you........... Paul K

Q: Could you please tell me the names of Canadian companies that should benefit from the low Canadian dollar, that have expenses in Canadian dollars but revenue in U.S. dollars. Thank you very much.

Q: Hello Folks:
Currently we have approx. 65% large cap US. stocks and the reminder a few Canadian stocks and cash. We have slowly divested ourselves of all Canadian energy producers except for a good chunk of IPL. Do you have a few particular Canadian stocks you could recommend to use up the cash. I am am hesitant about materials/energy and financials.
We are quite confused and any help you could provide is immensely appreciated. Thanks so much!
brian clarke (age 68)

Q: Is it because it is a low volume stock it has declined a quite a bit this-with new contracts and low fuel prices was wondering why the pullback

Q: Could you please offer your opinion on whether the Canadian Federal government would allow or interfere in a foreign company buying Blackberry. The latest news indicates South Korean Samsung is interested in BB. What do your sources say about this possible buy-out?

Thank You

Q: Wonder if you could update your views on HWD. Stock has held up remarkably well during the recent market sell-off. Is this due to its small cap size, low trading volume and lack of significant analyst coverage? Look forward to your analysis.

Q: Hi Peter and Team,

I own Tourmaline (TOU) and Stantec (STN). The former pays no dividend and the latter a small but growing one. Both are weak lately and I was thinking it might make sense to switch them both to good quality dividend payers while waiting a recovery. My thoughts were to trade TOU for Peyto (PEY) and Stantec for WSP Global (WSP). Both pay over 4%. Do you think the dividends in PEY and WSP are "safe" and is this a good idea. I am getting closer to retirement and would like to gradually shift my portfolio towards income-paying companies.

Thank you.

Michael