Investment Q&A

Q: I cannot fathom why investors would buy rate reset preferreds when the resets will virtually all significantly lower their current dividend. The MINIMUM rate resets, to my mind, are the only preferreds to buy and there are many good companies paying between 5 3/4% and 7% and this rate will not drop. Additionally, if and when rates increase they could be paying an even higher dividend. No one seems to ask about minimum rate resets! Am I missing something?
Thanks
Phillip

Q: I bought these share for income in my registered account many years ago. Would you recommend that I continue to hold them?

Q: I own GSY.DB in my non-registered account. I have given instructions to convert my debenture to shares at the end of the month. I bought the debentures when they first came out at a price of $100.00. What will be my ACB for these new shares? What price do I use when I report a capital gain for tax purposes assuming I have a capital gain?

Q: Just reading about the new limited resource capital notes (LRCNs) that RBC is issuing to institutional investors at 4.5%. Since these pay interest, they are better for the banks than equity because they can deduct interest payments but not dividends. For investors, dividends are preferable from a tax point of view but I am wondering if banks are going to try and reduce traditional preferrred share offerings and issue more of these LRCNs. This is probably why preferreds have gone up recently. How do you see this playing out?

Q: what about getting exposure to Cineplex via the recent convertible bond issues by the company?

Q: Good morning,
Not a question, but a note to offer another possible reason as to the recent “lift” in preferred share prices, especially in the banks sponsored shares. A new capital note structure proposed by RBC (Limited Recourse Capital Notes – LCRN’s) has been accepted by the OSC as qualifying as Additional Tier 1 capital. In short, the view is that these notes, primarily issued to institutions, will limit future issuances in the traditional retail preferred share market, while also potentially funding the redemption of existing shares, resulting in better market tone.

Best regards,
Brad

Q: My kennel full of rate reset preferreds started barking surprisingly over the last couple of days, both in price and volume. Do you have any insight into this, and is it an opportunity to dump some of these hounds
in the dog days of summer (before tax loss selling gets underway in earnest in a couple of months)?

Q: WHY IS THIS UP TODAY AND IS IT A GOOD TIME TO BUY? THX JAMES

Q: Hi, preferred shares across the board are up huge today. Any reason?

Q: Hello
BMO.PR.C jumped today 8%. All other preferred shares jumped around 2-3%. CPD around 2.5%.

Do you know why BMO.PR.C jumped so much (8%). The volume of BMO.PR.C also jumped at 83,000 shares compare to the daily average of around 5,000. I own these shares and I would like to know if there is an explanation?
Thanks

Q: good morning - the bulk of my fixed income assets are in the form of preferred shares which i would very much like to move away from, although I will take a pounding in the values. My prefs pay in the 5% range and I'm wondering what your take is on replacing them say with canadian banks which are also paying roughly the same in dividends at their current prices. I am already overweight in banks and utilities but wonder what the true risks are for a long term holder. I have read several times that holding the banks over an extended period usually outperforms the canadian index. I know the difference between common and prefs, from a legal perspective, and understand that commons can suffer from downdrafts. However, all my prefs have performed so poorly and the future seems so bleak for them that i would like to get rid of them. What advice can you offer me, please. As always, thank you.

Q: Down lots in this stock. Is it worth keeping?

Q: Greetings,

Hoping you can help me to understand the fundamental differences between these funds and why the US preferred ETFs have significantly outperformed CPD since March.

Thanks

Q: Which do you prefer and why?
Thanks for your service

Q: I hold these preferreds, which yield over 10%. I assume there are credit concerns based on doubts about the viability of companies holding office, commercial and retail properties. Your opinion?

Q: Hi,
After the announcement by GSY to start redeeming some of its debentures on June 29th, the stock seems to have been lagging the broader market. Hows does this news impact a stocks price and what effect does it have, if any?

Thanks

Q: There are a lot of different BAM preferred shares that one could choose from to invest. Some have dived yields as high as 8%? What is the difference in each of the issues? Why would one not just choose the one with the highest dividend yield? Can you please clarify? Is there a drawback of choosing one over the other? If you had to choose one which would you pick?

Regards,

Brendan

Q: Hello 5i Team
Is there a website where I can download the CUSIP and/or ISIN for Canadian Preferred Shares and/or other securities?
I am trying to analyse the holdings of CPD/RPF/ZPR and each one presents the holdings with different information (CPD has the CUSIP, RPF has neither, ZPR has the ISIN), none of them indicate the underlying TSE stock symbol and the security description is extremely truncated (mostly company name).
Some of the company websites have the CUSIP and/or ISIN, however the majority do not. Short of emailing the investor relations department do you suggest any other means?
How successful are you in receiving answers from investor relations representatives?
Thanks

Q: What is your opinion of buying into the recently announced offering of convertible debentures versus just buying the common shares? Thanks for the great service.

Q: As a follow up to my earlier question about Preferred shares as a form of income. I currently hold about 53% of my portfolio in savings account funds only giving me 1.5% dividend which is low, however as you mentioned the price will not drop so it is safe and also very liquid. I was thinking about taking 1/4 of that money (12% of my total portfolio) and putting it is some preferred share because the dividends are much higher. I do not plan to utilize this amount of funds for a while and it would give me a bit of extra return on my money. I currently have about 8% in common shares of banks, 8% in XLB, 12% in gold stocks, 12% in technology stocks, the rest in other various stocks not in those groups. I use the Savings Account mutual funds as cash for when I decide to buy stocks and I have been increasing my holdings slowly since the March lows. Would it be better just to buy the common dividend paying stock or is there an advantage to buying the preferred. I know the preferred share have a higher hierarchy if a company goes bankrupt but they are very much more illiquid.

Thanks again,

Brendan

P.S. when are either you or Ryan going to appear on BNN market call again? Have not seen yee there for a while now.