Investment Q&A

Q: Retired and income seeking investor. These three stocks seem to have been underperforming. Would you buy them for relatively low volatility and reasonably good yields? How safe are their dividends?

Q: I plan on buying PBH - waiting til after Q1 report May 11th as I think news could be bad? I was looking at SYSCO in the USA as a buy as well? Are they similar companies in terms of the products they supply? No point buying both - I'd have to use CDN $$ as well fro the US position. What do you think about PBH in light of meat supply and maybe increased costs?

Q: Hi Peter: When I sit back and take a look at the big picture and review how my portfolio performed during COVID-19 (so far), I try to see what lessons I can learn, then turn to how to apply those lessons to make my portfolio stronger.

I am a retired, dividend-income investor. I am a huge believer in asset allocation and have designed a portfolio, in my opinion, to be reasonably well diversified, although heavy to Canada. It WAS roughly 70% equities (including 32% foreign content) and 30% fixed income (roughly 15% insured annuities, 15% Fisgard Capital...both averaging in the 5-6% pre-tax range and minor cash). My equities are mostly blue chip, dividend payers, as you can see above. The 3 mutual funds are a very minor part of my portfolio, especially Eric's Energy Fund (<2%). I also receive a company pension and CPP-OAS which, when included, drops my equities to roughly 32%.

I use various metrics to monitor my portfolio, such as P/E, P/BV, P/CF, P/S, Beta, ROE, Div growth, Payout%, technical indicators like 200 mda. I am normally a buy-and-hold investor who trims/adds around a core position.

Periodically I measure how "at risk" my portfolio is relative to the overall market. I do this by prorating my portfolio using Beta. Based on equities only, I averaged 0.68 and for my entire portfolio I averaged 0.44. So, one would think that if the overall market (TSX) was to drop 30%, then I would have thought my portfolio would drop 44% to 68% of that, being in the range of 13% (overall) to 20% (equities only).

In actual fact, my entire portfolio dropped 27% from peak to trough vs the expected 13%...over double! I understand that EVERYTHING was sold off...almost no exceptions. So what do we learn from this and what changes should we consider? Do we accept that "sxxt happens" once in a while...you can't predict every event, accept it and move on? Should we consider increasing the cash component as a buffer? Or...is there something else to be learned here?

Thanks for you help...much appreciated...Steve

Q: PBH appears to have been doing ok despite the COVID-19 lockdown, which means, their products are likely not being purchased and consumed. When does the sales slowdown negatively hit them, and what do you think happens to the stock price in the short term, and do you think they have the financials to weather the storm and go back to higher ground after the lockdowns end?

Q: PBH: a lot of debt. and a high P.R. and hurt Wuhan virus effect. Always thought this company was too expensive based EPS and high P.E.; but, it kept going up. I was thinking of adding a half position until they report in mid May - results should be bad, I would think? With their already high P.R. is the dividend sustainable?

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan and team,

How would you rank BYD, PBH, QSR and DSG for an add on in a RESP? Time frame is 8 years. Would rankings change within a TFSA?

Is it possible to buy stocks for a child who is under 18? Or would the child have to wait until 19 to own stocks.?

Please charge however among of credit for the questions.

Thanks again for your your great service!

Marvin

Q: I just read your report on PBH and wondering what does China have to do with supplying pork to PBH? (ref. Growth Plans section of the report). I always thought China was a net importer of pork and am shocked if Canada /PBH is buying Chinese pork. Please explain the China connection to PBH operations and its impact on PBH earnings & growth.

Q: I would appreciate your thoughts about IDHD - Invesco S and P International developed High Dividend Low Volatility ETF. Thinking of selling and replacing with Corning or what?
Also your thoughts on PBH?
with thanks,
Connie

Q: Morning:
I own equal weightings of these equities in my TFSA. I have some cash to invest, which one of these would you buy more of at their current market valuations? Looking for capital appreciation over the next 8 to 10 years. Thanks!

Q: Would you have any recommendations for convertible debentures? I would only consider companies with solid balance sheets.

Thank you

Q: I am short on Consumer Stocks in my overall portfolio - can you give me some names to look at, both in the US and Canada - I'm interested in those that pay a dividend and are growing.
Appreciate you comments.
Thanks

Q: Thanks for your flash report. Much appreciated.
Without doing a full review, which of the above would risk being downgraded if you were to do a full review? Thanks. Your service is great!

Q: What would be your favourite 5 Canadian and 5 us stocks for stagflation and best etf as well.Your favourite food commodity etf as well .thanks

Q: In early March, as the markets dramatically weakened due to looming economic damage from Covid-19, I sold four smaller, lower-quality positions within my portfolio, mainly for tax-loss reasons (the proceeds represent <2% of the portfolio value), with the intention (option) to re-buy after 30 days (as my philosophy is long-term buy-and-hold). The question now, of course, is whether to re-buy any or all of the 4 positions sold (fortunately, 3 of the 4 are trading at prices substantially lower than what I sold them for). I wonder what your advice would be as to whether to re-buy any or all of these at this time:
(a) Russel Metals;
(b) Cenovus (note—I already hold Suncor as a major position, which I could add to instead);
(c) MTY Food Group (I already hold as major positions SBUX and QSR);
(d) Premium Brand Holdings.

Q: Retired dividend-income investor. I'm sitting on 15% cash that I created by taking profits and harvesting some losses. I have mapped out how to redeploy this cash to hit my asset allocation targets, both by sector as well as by individual holding. I had originally designed the re-entry on spreading the purchases over 6 months. Given that we now have information on different countries indicating that they MIGHT be showing signs of COVID slowly recovering and that the stock market is forward looking, would you adjust the 6 months time frame to 4 months? What's your crystal ball tell you...redeploy a little faster?

Also, the above equities are those that are candidates for topping up. Which would you hit up first?

Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: Hello 5i.
Could you please suggest 2 or 3 Consumer Defensive stocks that you think will recover well once we get through COVID-19.
Thank you.
John

Q: In view of current conditions, in your opinion, is PBH a buy ,sell,or hold both a registered and an unregistered plan. Thank you,

Q: Which one of these, if any, would you sell to increase my tech sector allocation? Can you please rank them as well.
Alternatively, if they all have good long term potential, I have the flexibility to increase my equity allocation with additional cash. Please let me know you thoughts and thank you!

Q: The above TFSA holdings have not performed well and of course, are not eligible as tax loss harvesting. This is one of the potential downsides of TFSA investments. Please give me your thoughts on which ones you would move on from and without worrying about sectors, some replacements you think will recover well. Thanks again for your guidance.

Q: 5i had answered a similar question back in November, however I would appreciate it if you could revisit the question in light of today's environment. Between the Premium Brands Holdings an Maple Leaf Foods, which do you see as having better potential for growth? Is debt an issue with either?

Your answer in November had been "PBH is now bigger than MFI, is cheaper on valuation, has better growth potential, and recent earnings/outlook were far better. It would be our choice today."

Thanks!