Investment Q&A

Q: A BNN guest recently recommended this stock. It is new to me. Any thoughts?

Q: I hold First Service Corp (FSV) in a registered account and it has grown to a full (5%) position in my total portfolio. I anticipate reducing my holding post company split. The stock price continues to march higher. At this time do you think it is under valued,fully valued or overvalued based on the anticipated results of the successor companies over the next 12 months? Which of the two successor companies do you prefer, Colliers or the (new) First Service Corp going forward and why?
Thanks, Tim.

Q: Could I please have your comments on this fund. I currently own IPL and am considering this fund as a means of adding other infrastructure plays.

Thank you, David

Q: May i have your opinion on Chesapeake Energy.Have noticed good insider buying latley.

Q: I would like to sell GH as a tax loss. I held the stock primarily for income. Could you suggest a few 5i covered stocks that I could use to replace the income with some possibility of capital appreciation and/or divvy growth as a bonus. Thank You Ron

Q: ENF announced they received the formal proposal from Enbridge regarding the liquids business transfer on March 31. No details on the transfer were announced. Investors have been waiting for and expecting this, however, there seemed to be quite strong selling pressure and volumes today. Also, ENF has pulled back around 20% from its high in early February.
I'm just wondering if this pullback is:
- investor concerns regarding the required share issuance
- the stock overshot on its run-up to February
- unfavourable details on the 'proposal' from Enbridge have leaked out
- just the vagaries of the market

Your thoughts on the above and would you continue to hold for income? Thanks.

Q: I just finished reviewing the growth portfolio and I thought it was curious that there is no junior gold miner in the list. I can think of a couple like Teranga Gold or Lakeshore and I am sure that there are many more that have actual mines running and are low cost producers. If gold ever sees a substantive increase, many of these producing juniors should also move. Historically many investors have done very well by going into out of favour sectors.

Q: I have been holding BIP.UN and not BEP.UN. What are the differences between the two? Which is the better one?

Q: Hello. I have 1000 shares of ort bought at 2.88 and 6000 shares of nml bought at 1.50. I think they cant go lower but should i sell. They are in my rssp. Thanks a lot.

Q: Hi great 5i team , I wonder how to buy and sell stocks e.g. TC with low daily trading volume ? How does the fund manager go around this problem ?

Q: Sorry, a follow up to my last question. Yahoo is expected to spin off it's Alibaba Holding soon. I hold Yahoo in my MARGIN a/c. Should I move it into my RRSP?

Thanks again. Austin

Q: Analysts recommendations are usually based on oil prices moving up to 60 in 2016 and 70 in 2017.What if the price stays flat for the following two years. Who would be the survivors if any?

Q: What are the metrics most used to value roll-up companies or companies that use acquisitions as a staple in revenue growth? BCI,VRX,CXR,CSU,SYZ,PHM,BYD,AQC,CXV etc.... I understand these range in market cap and therefore their valuations will differ due to "size" risk.

Q: Just a suggestion regarding Peter's question today (April 5) on how to review/find his questions history.... What I do is save all the emails the 5i team sends me answering my questions...I flagged them to make my search for them easier.

Q: I'm thinking of buying a European large cap ETF like FEZ or ZEQ. What do you think of European equity prospects for the next year? I'm trying to understand the impact of the ECB QE policy, the strong US dollar/weak Euro and a possible Greece-exit factors into Euro equity prospects for the rest of the year
thanks

Q: I have been moving towards replicating, as much as possible, your Balanced Equity Model. I am with Scotia iTrade who now have a performance tracking system. In February, my return was 5.48% (March is not yet available). Your portfolio, on the other hand, returned 7%.
I do not yet hold AYA, CSU, DSG nor SYZ. But I do hold SLW and IPL plus some Low Volatility ETFs for international diversity. All holdings have a initial purchase balance of 5% or less.
Do you have any suggestions as to which I might sell and which I might buy with the proceeds?

Q: As an investor looking for more fixed income in my portfolio, would you recommend preferreds or bond funds to balance things up? Currently my fixed income exposure consists mostly of GIC's, with paltry rates.

Q: When starting to build the new Growth Portfolio,with $50,000.Is it better or more efficient to buy exact dollar amount ( $2500 per position for ex.) or by even lots? Also, should you start with the 5% positions first and then work you way to the 3% positions overtime?
Thank you very much for your expertise.

Q: I think you have mentioned in the past that for a retired conservative income investor, it would be appropriate to hold roughly 15-20% of foreign equities.

My first question is regarding 15-20% of what...the total portfolio of equities and fixed income or of only the equity portion?

My 2nd question is regarding each company and where they are domiciled. For example, BNS has 44% foreign income (based on their annual report). Do you count BNS as 0% foreign or 44%? WSP has 79% foreign. Do you count it as 0% or 79% foreign?

I have done it both ways. Using only where the stock is based (ex: BNS = 0% foreign), I get 14% foreign content. Breaking each company down by the income percent by geographic, I get 22%. Both of these #'s are a % of my total portfolio.

However, if you take the percentage of foreign content divided by only the equities (ignore fixed income), I get 35% foreign.

Back to my question...15-20% foreign content = based on what?

Thanks for your help.
Steve

Q: Noticed you took out CBO from income portfolio and added VCSH short term US corporate. Why ? what would you recommend for short term canadian exposure if any ?
Thank you !