Investment Q&A

Q: Hi, Peter and Ryan, I am in a postion to adjust my well diversified portfolio by adding to 2 of the above currently owned companies or additionally adding RME to the portfolio. My cash position is 4.6% at this time. What is your recommendation today? Alternatively there is no rush so do I wait a bit longer.

Q: Going forward, which would you pick as an income stock with preservation of capital as paramount and why. Thank You Ron

Q: Can I have your thoughts on NWC's earnings? Seems like hurricane aftermath and US tax changes are a drag.

Q: I've had these two companies for a while now in my RSP portfolio, would you recommend topping up at todays prices or are there currently better oppotunities in the income space (if so, please recommend).

Thanks,

Q: What's your thoughts on NWC. Can you see any reason for recent sell off.

Q: I am concerned that my Riff account maybe too heavily weighted in utilizes and banks so I would like your opinion on adding north west and Nutrient to the portfolio. Could you comment on safety of Capital and dividend growth. Also, do you think Nutrient will have to issue stock to pay for the recent takeover and if so, at what price ( I would hate to buy only to see the stock price drop.)
Thank you.
Maggie

Q: I am a retired, conservative, dividend income investor with a company pension, CPP and 30% fixed income (annuities, Fisgard Capital) and equities comprised of 15% MFs, 15% ETFs (ZLB, ZWC, ZWE, XIT) and 40% mostly blue chip stocks (BCE, BNS, RY, TRP, ECI, FTS, ALA, CGX, AQN, AD, NFI, CSH, PBH, ABT, etc).

I have owned PBH since $17 (now $103) and have trimmed it 14 times! It is still a full position. When I compare it to NWC, NWC's metrics indicate much better value (P/E, P/BV, P/CF, P/S, Beta), not to mention a 4.4% dividend vs PBH's at 1.6%. However, PBH has demonstrated incredible growth so far. So, I thought about swapping out of PBH and into NWC...simple, right? To get the same annual dividend, I'd only need to deploy 1/3 of the capital. Nope...massive capital gain!

I know there is no escaping the tax man. Any suggestions...aside from being more aggressive in reducing my PBH position over the next few years, while building a NWC position? Thanks...Steve

Q: NWC has dropped more than 10% in the last 6 weeks at quite high volumes relative to previous volumes. Do you have any ideas as to why, given that there has been no news recently concerning this company? Is it sensitivity to rising interest rates? My intent is to buy a half position short term and a full position longer term, but I'm reluctant to buy with what appears to be a "falling knife" situation. How would you recommend one proceed, given my trading costs are low? Wait for the price to stabilize or a partial buy?
Thanks for any suggestions which you are able to make.

Q: I have $35,000 total room in our TFSA for my wife and myself, 71 years of age. Together we have 60 equities in our Income portfolios dividend long term investing with a 10 year horizon mostly following the 5i Income portfolio. Not wanting to add new equities should I top to ENB, BCE, UTX. Loblaw, NWC, and SPB to get each up to about 2% weight or follow another venue that you may suggest?
I also have a five year GIC ladder in place, cash resource, and defined pension. I feel that with XGD at 1.82% weight I do not need to add to it.
Thank you
Stanley

Q: Is NWC worth keeping or should be replaced with another name?
Thanks

Q: NWC continues to languish and I am considering adding to my position.
Are you still optimistic about growth prospects?
Thank you

Q: I purchased NWC to add to my consumer staples holdings thinking it should be a company that is "less impacted" by Amazon than other staples. Do you think my reasoning holds true and what do you think of the prospects for NWC in 2018 and beyond? As always I thank-you for your invaluable opinion.

Q: Yesterday you answered a question about the quarterly results of NWC quoting EPS at 42 cents and expected EPS of 48 cents. My data feed from Waterhouse quotes expected EPS of 47 cents and actually EPS at 45 cents. Do have suggestions as to what is adjusted in these numbers or is it a random adjustment unique to each report? Thanks

Q: Please assess their latest results. Would you continue to hold, for income?
Geoff

Q: My wife and I are retired and are income investors. We are considering reducing our 35% bank exposure. These investments have done very well over the years and we do not want to reduce the quality of our portfolio, but think that perhaps a little more diversification would be desirable.

We are looking for one or two non-large-cap Canadian companies with a growing dividend/distribution preferably greater than 3.5% for a very long-term if not forever hold. We want to avoid more financials, utilities, and retail, office, industrial, and apartment REITs.

Some possible purchases we have identified are: KPT, ITP, CSH, ZCL, AGU, BIP, HLF, BEP, UFS, BPF, AND NWC.

What do you think of reducing our exposure to banks and buying some non-large-cap companies?

What do you think of our list of possibilities? Do you have any other suggestions? If you have two or three good candidate suggestions that would be great.

As always, thanks!

Q: I would like to add to one or two of the above stocks with my gains from Shopify. In a well diversified portfolio I am looking for dividend income with some growth. I hold all of the above just slightly less than a 2% allocation in the portfolio.

Many thanks for your continued support, education, advice and suggestions. I have done well under 5i direction since 2013. Thank you.

Q: Hold NWC in my tfsa but thinking of switching into CCL-B. Also, is Amazon a threat to North West Company?

Would you be ok with the switch?

Q: IS NWC income only or income plus growth? I'm trying to figure out which account to buy it in. TFSA, RRSP or non registered.

Q: 12:32 PM 9/11/2017
Hello 5i
Thank you for your answer to my question this morning about selecting companies with the highest probability of reliable long term income and dividend growth.

Just to follow up, if I am reading between the lines correctly I infer you would clearly choose banks if we didn't already own some. But since we do your suggestion is to buy CSH.UN and NWC.

I am fine with your suggestion but did you make it basically just to provide "diversification" at the cost of buying much much smaller and possibly less stable companies or would it be just as safe to simply overweight on Canadian banks.

Do you really think CSH.UN and NWC are as "safe" as RY and TD? After all if banks go down, so goes everything else. Just how "dangerous" is it to have a 20+% position in the big 5 banks?

Thank you............. Paul K

Q: 9:57 AM 9/10/2017
Hello Peter :
My wife and I are in our 70's and require additional steady dividend income to complement our pensions and bond income. We wish to choose companies that we never need to consider selling and that have reliable dividend growth and little chance of dividend cuts.
We have a 4.5% cash position we want to invest.
We need to decide between two options:
1. Invest the whole 4.5% in RY or TD, [we already own 10% split between BNS and CM], or
2. Add to 2 or more of these existing positions : CSH.UN [3.2%], SIA [3.9%], NWC [2.2%], CSW.A [3.1%], RPI.UN [1.0%], or invest part in new positions in one or more of ET, ZCL, ABT, or ADN.
What choice or choices would you advise us to make for the highest probability of reliable long term income and dividend growth?
Thank you............. Paul K