Investment Q&A

Q: I have a general question but I will use SIS to help me as an example. I am trying to learn how to find out what a company's Debt is. I want to be able to calculate the ratio of Debt to Cash Flow. I can find Cash Flow right from the TD Direct Investing website, but how can I find "Debt" to plug into the ratio? Many thanks. Marilyn

Q: Gentlemen, good morning.
On my Ca$ side RESP I have only 3 stocks,
SIS (-28%, 50% of RESP PF / 3.9% totPF)
TSGI (-31%, 25% of RESP PF / 2.16% TotPF) &
NFI (-32%, 25% of RESP PF / 1.3% totPF).
The Can side is about 20% of RESP PF.
I have 20% of Ca$ RESP PF cash to add.
For 5 years min holding, Your thought please
Thanks Regards

Q: list your 3 best growth stocks with little debt eg KXS. and your 3 best growth stocks with high debt eg TSGI. and your 3 best growth stocks with 50 percent or more revenues derived from USA operations. thanks Richard

Q: Hi Folks
is it time to move on or is there still hope. Down 21% since I bought it a year ago. Can you give me a possible replacement if you think it's time to sell.
thanks

Q: Regardless of sector or size of company what would be your preference for a long term hold in a RRSP? Thanks

Q: hi folks:

as a followup to my earlier query on savaria's accounting i would like your further comment

sis employed hedges when it had ZERO debt , claiming it wanted to smooth out earnings variation caused by currency --- in those years this hedging cut profit in half

today they have debt which, along with the hedges, is impairing profit --- revenue is up 55% while operating income rose half that amount and EBITDA, (which is a phoney figure) is even less.

their accounting is unnecessarily complicated which always concerns me

if you look at a big company, like Teck or LNR, the reporting is 'fairly' straight forward

in my opinion these SIS guys try too hard to look better than they are - and are potentially just awaiting the next acquisition to get back to growth

comments?

thanks

Q: Have SIS closes the $14.55 financing?Thought it closed last week,but see no news.Please update.Thanks for u usual great services & views

Q: Hi Peter

every quarter they highlight growing sales and EBITDA, but it never translates to the bottom line

profit is flat

what is wrong with the company, that growth never comes out the bottom line?

also with 59% of revenue from the USA, why does it need to have currency hedges to protect itself from rising material costs priced in US dollars? --that should be a natural hedge

most quarters (except last one) those hedges are a drag on profits

and now they hedge interest rates too !!

thx in advance

Q: Should Savaria shareholders be concerned that in the recent Directors election J-M Bourassa had 30 % votes and S Bourassa 20% votes withheld?

Q: Hi Peter and Company:
I am a growth investor, presently down on above 4 Canadian and 5 US companies.
Should I keep, sell, add or replace e.g. GC with TSGI.
Since US market usually outperforms CAN market I am fine buying all best US growth
companies that you will recommend...…..or mixture of US and CAN companies. Long term hold fine but not required. I will trade as required, i.e. when becoming aware of it. E.g. missed selling MX, where I had an nice gain but no alert to sell and now a significant loss.
Thanks for your advice
KS

Q: Great market response to decent Q($13.60 up .85).How was conference call? Time to add to my 3.5% position($17.28 p/p) Thanks for u usual great services & views

Q: I own all of these in equal weighting (7% each). Down quite a bit on NFI. Just seeing if I should keep it and give it the long term (10 years) to provide a good return or sell because there is a better company to replace it with for a better long term performance at this point. Any other recommendations as I do have some cash side lined at this point (30%).

Q: Own all 3 in TFSA: 400 SIS, 1500 SPB & 1000 BIP.UN (thanks to ECI purchase - ended up with 1500 - sold 500). Sitting on $50K cash in this account. I was thinking of adding 600 SHS of SIS and 500 SHS of SPB ( owned since 2009) which will still leave me with a fair bit of cash to deploy. Comments/suggestions. Not a lot to choose from in TSX group. Large equity portfolios: RRIF, RRSP & Non Registered accounts.

Q: Good Morning Team
I have the above industrials trying to reduce the amount of my positions. Which of the above would you suggest I sell? Also need to increase allocation which would you suggest I add to? Thank you. Heather

Q: comments on the quarter please?

Q: I'm considering cutting a loser to invest in something new that has some growth. SIS, PBH, and TOY have been poor performers for me for a while now and have been dragging down my returns. If I thought the issues were temporary for all 3 of them I would hold and wait it out but I've found each of them has been less than impressive. SIS with the equity raises and mgmt that I'm losing faith in, PBH with a million excuses as to why each quarter has negative surprises (weather, swine flu, minimum wage,etc), and TOY with disappointing numbers that seem to be getting worse with no real catalyst to get back to growth (Toysrus overhang, diminishing sales in their top sellers that are getting stale, no replacement "home run" product to turn things around. These 3 seem to no longer be growth stocks, do you think I should cut any of the three or give them some more time?

Q: I own the above companies with the following corresponding weighting:
2.6%;1.3%;2.2%;2.5%;2.7%;2.2%. I am looking at the possibility of doing some consolidating - what are your thoughts on consolidating? If I consolidate - what 1 or possibly 2 companies would you eliminate and what 1 or 2 companies would you add to?
Use as many of my questions as you need and thanks for your excellent service.
RAM

Q: I have decided to only keep a few stocks and follow the Growth ETF Portfolio. Of the 10 stocks I have mentioned above 9 are listed in your BE Portfolio with the exception SHOP. All have done very well for me SHOP up 568%, CCL,B up 180% ,SIS up 159%,MG up 112% and the rest all up between 11 and 42%.So my question is do I keep them all? Sell some ? Any suggestions appreciated.Paul

Q: Hi Peter/Ryan
I am buy & hold investor. With quarterly results out for couple of mentioned companies, do you think any of these stocks don't fit in that category anymore irrespective of sector or there are better ones ?

Thanks

Q: Hi Peter
I'v god skier when CITRON published bad news about Shopify on 4th.April and I have sold all my SHOP same day. It was bad decision & I regret it. Now I have 130K to invest and I'm thinking to invest in all above stocks. All of the stocks accept for SIS & KXS are on their top and this skiers mi. Which one would you go as a first to invest and which one would you wait for better opportunity.
Andrew