Investment Q&A

Q: Hi Peter and Team,

This is a follow up on your answer to Gervais re: PM and MO. I was just wondering if you can comment on the huge difference in P/E between the two companies. PM is trading at 25.7X while MO's ratio is 8X. Wouldn't MO be a better buy at such a low PE ratio even though about a quarter of its business is in the US?
Great work guys, as usual.

Q: This company has an interesting (Beatons Creek, and Marble Bar) property in Australia. Sounds like huge potential given similar geology to gold regions in South Africa. What are your thoughts on this company.

Q: Recently I have made a nice profit on Ballard Power Systems. Do you think the price will rise more in the meantime ? Long term I like it.

Q: If you had two or three hundred thousand dollars (not in an RRSP or TFSA), and you wanted to grow it aggressively for a period of about three to five years, how would you invest it, and what kind of a return would you expect? Would your answer be different if it was only fifty thousand? Assume that I don't need any income from the investment, that I have maximal tolerance for risk, and that I've already tried tulips but I was 380 years too late. Thanks.

Q: Hi 5i! This is regarding Altagas (ALA); please correct me if I am mistaken in setting this out:
1. The prospect of the return of cost of the receipts in the event the WGL takeover collapses: Doesn't this really mean that receipt-holders would receive $31 minus the total of all dividend equivalent payments issued in respect of each receipt held (even if they were issued to someone else before you bought your receipts)? In that case, if the deal were to collapse after 15 monthly distributions, receipt holders would be due to receive $31 - $2.625 (i.e. minus 15 x $0.175) or net $28.375 per subscription receipt? In this situation, people holding the receipts from issue in taxable accounts would still be down the tax on the distributions, even after receiving 'reimbursement' for the cost of the receipts.

2. Do you know if ALA's management or board have given any indication of their intentions about the possibility of a dividend increase in 2017 or even any time before the closing date of the WGL transaction? Previously ALA had been raising annually. I have seen people writing as though dividend increases are off the table until Sept 2018 but I don't remember seeing an announcement from the company to that effect.

3. If Altagas' share price is down because "the market does not like the WGL transaction" or because "the market does not like uncertainty," wouldn't that suggest that if the deal falls through the share price would be likely to rise, particularly given any continuation of the recent strong quarterly report? I believe it was trading in the range of $33-35 shortly before the WGL deal was announced.
Thanks!

Q: Are covered call ETF's okay to put in a non registered account vs TFSA & RRSP from a tax perspective vs regular dividend etfs? Does this make things more complicated when filing?
Also what is the opinion of 5i regarding PDF?

Thank you!

Q: I would like to deploy cash held in my Canadian $ brokerage account on the basis that the Canadian dollar will decline in value in relation to the US dollar. I am considering the purchase of ZTS BMO Short Term US Treasury Bond Index. My premise is that this ETF should be very stable in the value of its holdings but will directly reflect changes in the CDN/US $ ratio. Is this correct?

Other than paying the high bank exchange spread or deploying a Norbert’s Gambit transaction, is there a better way to institute this idea? Is ZTS a suitable ETF for this purpose?
Thanks
David

Q: Hi Team,
Would you see the STB is worth holding and dividend cut coming ?
Thanks as always.
Tak

Q: Hi,

What are your thoughts about Open Text's growth prospects in the next year or two?

If the growth is anticipated to be low and the return is going to be just the dividend, maybe I should look elsewhere.

Are there better growth/income options in the tech sector?

Thanks,

Gord

Q: Could you update on Novagold, Cash position and management?

Q: Is this a good entry point for Inter Pipeline? Tx

Q: Are utilities just not the place to be right now?

Q: I am retired, age 65 and I am constructing a portfolio for dividend income which my aim is to have monthly dividend income for cycles 1,2 and 3 for dividend payments. This will be my main portfolio for income.Here is the portfolio I have put together for a unregistered account :
cycle 1: BNS,BCE,SU,TD,GSY,TRP,T
cycle 2: BMO,EMA,RY
cycle 3: FTS,ENB,MFC,SLF,TRI,SLF,NFI,CU-T,AQN,ATD.B,CCL.B
I would appreciate your opinion on this portfolio.Also, I'm sitting in cash in my TFSA and I am looking to possibly put some of these stocks in that account and would appreciate your recommendation on that as well.

Q: For year end tax reasons, is there another oil company that you would suggest to replace Crew Energy with?

Thankyou

Q: I am a fan of covered calls. I am retired and like the income, tax treatment and downside protection. In addition I like the diversity an ETF brings.
I hold all the above but am looking for more diversity. Are there equivalent US offerings? Does BMO have competing products that are more diverse?
Thanks

Q: Hi Peter: Is Peyto exploration's dividend sustainable given the world wide oversupply of natural gas and Peyto not holding any cash? is this (not having cash) normal for these types of companies?

Q: Hi team, I have a small LIRA with only 40K in it which will not be touched for at least 15 years. The rest my portfolio is balanced so no need to worry about sector allocation, etc. I am looking for some growth stocks that I could buy and leave for this time period. I would prefer more medium risk growth stocks versus higher risk US or CAD. I'm thinking of a 10K allocations. You thoughts?
Thanks

Q: Hi, which marijuana stock you recommend the most at this time ? Thank you.

Q: 5i Team,

Thanks for your service.

My portfolio is made up of your balanced equity portfolio + several growth portfolio companies, some large cap US companies & some equity portfolio companies. Very balanced with a hedge towards growth.

I have big winners all over the place, thank you!!!!

I am however down big (approx. 50% each) on 3 small cap names: AT, CRH & ITC.

They are now about 0.5% weightings.. fairly insignificant to my portfolio and I am wrestling with whether I top them up... leave them alone as is... sell and consolidate it into other names in my portfolio (ie. CLS, PKI & CAE comes to mind right now)... etc.

I have no tax benefit to sell as they are all in registered / TFSA accounts.

My question is how confident are you in these names? For a riskier investor, would you be ok with top ups to 1% weightings today? Should I just let them sit and maybe top up during tax loss season in a month or two? Or just sell?

Thank you for your guidance.

Q: Hi,
I have owned OTEX in the past. I recently bought it again around $44 after last earnings report which was good. Since then the stock has been sliding for no apparent reason. Momentum is negative. It recently bought Guidance Software. I thought it may recover but still hovering in low $39s range. I do not like to average down, but if I was looking at it as a fresh investment, it would give me pause to consider. Your thoughts please.