Investment Q&A

Q: PKI's recent poor performance is well-documented but am I interested in a deeper dive as to why. Should its fortunes not have improved with the rise in oil prices? Or is the sky high price of fuel at the pumps resulting in lower volumes and thus decreased traffic in its high margin stores? Or is it something else? I have been a long term owner but my patience is just about exhausted and I am skeptical at best about the M & M acquisition.

Thanks for your views.

Q: Hi Peter and Staff

PKI has been disappointing. What do you think of Topaz as a long term investment versus Parkland ?
Thanks for all you do
Dennis

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team,

Like many members as well as 5i, I am increasingly frustrated with PKI. For example, it dropped 5.2% on January 18. :(

We hold PKI in both my wife’s and my RRIFs. Both holdings are still up, but I’m considering exiting PKI while we’ve still made some money.

I was considering equal purchases of SU, CNQ or CVE, TOU, and KEY for each RRIF (2 for each RRIF). Would you be OK with such a move? Please rank these 5 stocks for safety and upside.

Another move I was considering is to raise our US exposure by buying Vanguard’s ETF VDE. (According to Portfolio Analytics, we’re underweight in the energy sector, as well as USA). Would you endorse this purchase, which would be for our non-registered account? Am I correct in assuming that any withholding taxes shouldn’t prevent this purchase in a non-registered account?

I also manage our son’s TFSA, and unfortunately his holding in PKI is down by quite a bit. I intend to hold it, but would certainly exit it if 5i drops it from the Balance Equity Model Portfolio. Is 5i considering such a move?

Please deduct sufficient credits, and thanks as always for your insight and guidance.

Q: What do you think of the M & M acquisition. I thought it appeared to be a sound strategy and should increase in store customers and purchases.
Cheers, Chris

Q: Scotia lowered the target price to $41 and stated that PKI should reduce the EBITDA growth and instead return more capital to shareholders in dividends. EBITDA grew from $1.25-billion to $2.0-billion. Is Scotia's hypothesis correct? I always thought that the EBIDTA growth is one of the most important criteria in evaluating a stock.

Q: Considering that you were frustrated with this one yesterday, today you must be downright peeved. I see no news and was just wondering if you have seen anything cross your wires on this one today. I am thinking of adding.

Q: Why PKI is a laggard although its fundamentals are strong? All energy stocks are hitting record prices. Even pipelines are doing better.

Q: Which of the above names would you be comfortable adding to today? Of those, what would be the priority order for additions? Finally, are there a couple of other names you would see as strong buy candidates to throw into this mix that are trading at attractive levels today?

Thank you!

Q: Could you please provide your top two picks in both the materials and energy sectors?
I don't have any investments in materials now and wonder if I should have something. Currently I hold ENB and PKI in energy and am thinking of switching PKI for TOU or SU.
The remainder of my portfolio is well balanced and as a retiree stability and income are more important than speculative growth.

Q: Hi Everyone,
Lately PKI seems to be on a downward trajectory. I am wondering if it's time to sell the stock, or do you see it rebounding this year.?
Also, I would like your opinion on DHT.UN. I know nothing about this stock,but it has a very attractive dividend. Does it have a lot of debt? How safe is its dividend and does it have any growth potential?
I appreciation your opinion.
Thanks,
Jane

Q: Thoughts on buying PKI at todays prices? Why hasn't it gone up as much as other stocks in the oil and gas space?

Q: Would like to increase my weighting in resources. I have PKI,ENB,PPL equal weighting at around 3% each. Would like to sell one of them then acquire 2 producers large/small cap with yield with equal weighting at 3%. Could you rank the one to sell and suggestion some producers ?

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and 5i Team,

Do you have a recent opinion of HUC? I'm thinking of it as a way to use dividends from our other holdings to periodically buy shares, as we can buy and sell HUC at no cost with iTrade. Being underweight in the energy sector, holding only ENB and PKI, I'm thinking that it's a good way to "dip our toes" into this commodity ETF. I do understand that HUC can be volatile, and has relatively high fees, but as a managed ETF, its MER doesn't seem to me to be excessive.

Your thoughts please, and thanks in advance.

Q: I hold the above securities in my TFSA in relative equal $ amounts. Putting aside asset allocation, which company would you invest new TFSA money in?

Thanks Ken

Q: Good morning,
Tax loss selling season has arrived and looking at my non registered portfolio I see that PKI is significantly below my purchase price and while I still like PKI for the long term, it is a candidate for tax loss selling this year. I would appreciate your thoughts on:
Q1. Selling PKI and replacing this holding with ATD
Q2. Selling PKI and purchasing ATD as a proxy until I'm able to repurchase PKI in 30 days.
Q3. Recommending another stock or ETF to purchase following the sale of PKI
I thank you and look forward to your thoughts and sage advice.

Q: I see several analysts estimates targeting PKI in the $50 range, implying about a 50% upside. Does this seem at all reasonable to you?? Thanks Jim

Q: Hi 5i,
What is your opinion on Alimentation vs. Parkland? Over the last couple years I’ve held in the hopes it might turn out to be a ‘baby ATD.B’. Is this a case where an investor should pay up for the quality proven business?

Thank you!

Q: Hi 5i Team,
In general I follow 5i Balance Equity Portfolio. Lately, I went through comparing my portfolio to 5i Balance portfolio I found that I have to add the following stocks BDGI,PKI and SHOP and I am under weight on AEM,ATD,ATZ,BAM.A,CCL, ENB,TFII. Can you please advise in order which stock consider a good buy at this time.
Also, Can you please advise good buying stocks from the Growth Portfolio.
Thanks,

Q: Further to Josette's question about stepping in to PKI, i was about to step in after latest earnings, that were good, but then they announced 2 aquisitions that will be financed partly with newly issued equity. I have not seen in the announcement the value of these aquisitions, and i question why management would keep this info from investors.
Since i expect the price to go down with equity issuing, i am waiting to buy. Does this make sense?

Q: All things considered equal portfolio wise, which would you chose and why, for a 3-5 year hold.

Thanks