Investment Q&A

Q: Is now a good time to buy Wells Fargo?

Q: Good morning! Could you please give me your thoughts on adding Blackstone Group (BX) to my RIF account? I hold mostly dividend paying low beta stocks and some bond etf's. BX has a good dividend and appears to be at a low for the year.

Q: ULTA update:

Since I 1st asked about ULTA I have been waiting for an entry point as it pullbacks a bit.

There was a big ULTA block print of 900,000 shares at $232.75 via Goldman Sach. That is $209,475,000.

Was Smart Money buying or selling is always what needs to be figured out.

It is sitting around that price today and bounced off the $230 support level.

Will be interesting the next few days I suspect.

Q: In my RRSP, 28% of my portfolio is in U.S. stocks. I am getting concerned about the US election, and what it might do to the markets, in the short term, as well as the overall U.S. economy in 2017/18. With the Cdn dollar being down around $.76, would it be advisable to take that down closer to 15%, instead of the 28%, for a while?
Also, I presently have 25% in cash, and want to put half of that into something low risk,but better return than cash, for up to 2 years. Would ETFs with a stable history, be a good place to put the cash,and if so, can you recommend a couple? Or another idea, instead of ETFs...
The remaining 47% of the portfolio is in the Cdn market, and some Emerging Market ETFs.
Thank you
Grant

Q: There was a quest on BNN yesterday that said he is short RDS.B because he believes that the dividend will be cut. Can you please give me your comments on the likely hood of this happening.

All the best, Darcy

Q: Hi Peter and team,
I own a reasonable amount of St. Jude medical which is being purchased by Abbott - approx. half cash and half stock.
My other large cap medical holdings includes.
Pfizer, Merck, Medtronic, J&J
I also own GUD & recently bought some Savaria, small portion of EXE
Each has approx. a 1-2% allocation.

Would appreciate your thoughts about when & / or how to get out of St. Judes and what to replace it with.
I don't want more mainly pharma so probably wouldn't add Merck or Pfizer.

I like stocks with a moat such as SJM, MDT, Stryker, Zimmer Biomet and Savaria.

I don't know enough about Abbott to decide if I should simply take the shares. If Abbott is going to be more of a device / equipment company and looks good here I would take the shares.

I am happy to hold these 5-10 years (probably longer) and am close enough to retirement - 3-5 yrs that income and lower risk become more important.

I would appreciate your input as to strategy here and what to do with the cash / shares.
Could you rank the above names taking these factors into account?

Thank you in advance for the great service and your input. ( Please subtract the number of questions you think is fair.)


Tulio

Q: What are your thoughts on the insurance companies in Canada versus US in general. Interest rates seem to affect the performance of the insurers and with the US on track for at least some small increase in rates in the not too far off future, I wondering if switching from Manulife (my current holding) to a US insurer (Aflac perhaps) in a registered account makes sense.

Q: I bought Cracker Barrel due to its superior stability of earnings and return on capital and it immediately dived 13%, about half of the decline occurring after a profit warning yesterday. I usually hang on in these situations especially since it pays a dividend. What would your advice be though?

Q: I have just read a BMIS explainer on the PG sale to Coty. They offer an Option 99 for a PG shareholder to do NOTHING. My read of this is if you want to participate in this transaction you must tender some of your PG shares to enter a convoluted process to determine what you receive. My take on Option 99 is if you don't opt to tender any PG shares, you are effectively letting PG mgt to look after your residual value from this Tx.
Is this a correct conclusion? Is there any material value for a small PG holder to participate in this auction?

Tnaks as alway for your advice.
Ernie

Q: Hi,

I'm looking for an RRSP investment for my wife. What we have right now is a TD US INDEX fund. Chose this one because it has low MER and tracks the S&P 500. Can you give us other index funds that you can recommend be it US or Canadian with good performance?

Thanks,

Sunday

Q: Hello 5i,
Which would you choose for greater growth over the next 2-3 years NVDA or QCOMM?
Thanks
Dave

Q: 5i

Appreciate your comments in regard to the next USA President. What do you beleive the markets in general will do and what will happen with commodities, oil, gas and gold if Hillary gets elected or
if Trump gets elected. Some pundants Are saying gold will soar if Trump wins and markets will drop 20%. If Hillary wins then markets will be volatile as people do not trust the establishment.

Wayne

Q: Hello 5i: Can you provide me with two Canadian ETFs equivalent to VIG and IWO.
I believe the foreign exchange rate + 15% withholding tax (clipped at source) + CAD dollar uptrend (It could happen), are sufficient reasons not to go US-bound
Thanks

Q: Hi, While US stocks are not your mandate can you help me with this one? Down almost 40% from when I bought it, it keeps going down tho you said earlier it's "growth prospects are good." Why? Should I give up or hold on?

Q: Hello.
With the big drop in this company and the insider selling would you suggest selling or holding. Your advice will be appreciated

Thank you
Barbara

Q: Hi 5i,
What would you do with First Solar given the factors behind its recent plummeting? Is it an outright sell? I can afford to take a 3-5 year view with it, if it makes sense to do so. I am down substantially on the position but it is in a registered account so there is no tax loss angle to it. Nominally I think of the holding as part of a relatively small speculative pool within my portfolio so there are no real sector balancing consequences one way or another. Grateful for any thoughts. Thanks!

Q: Good morning Team
What do you think of Birkshire Hathaway? It is about $148.97 as of end of day Monday.I do need some Financial and I have some U.S.$ to deploy. I cannot find much on 5i site. Sorry for yet another US question
Thanks for your guidance on this

Q: I have a question about 552
Hi Peter,
Can shareholders of the cheaper B stock attend the annual general meeting and if yes do you need to own a minimum number of shares. Given the pullback today would it makes sense to buy? Thanks as always.
Looking forward to seeing you and the team at the money show this week in Toronto.
Maggie

Q: Please provide your insight on OCLR. Thanks. Rossana. The company is Oclaro Inc. US.

Q: Hello, if you had to choose between these 3 companies for US technology exposure, which one would you select? This is for the long term (>3 years). Thank you, Gervais