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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: I am a retired, conservative, dividend-income investor. I have added ROE and Payout Ratio to the metrics that I track to assess the securities that I hold. Can you give me some ballpark levels that are a good starting point? For ROE, is >10% a reasonable level? For Payout Ratio, is <90% ok? I suspect it differs by industry (eg. I know the banks are around 50%), if so can you lay it our for me...thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on October 29, 2018
Q: According to Bank of America while individual investors are still buying stocks, institutional investors are selling. Is that a bearish sign ? Typically professionals exit the market before a major downturn and retail investors as always late in the game throw their money into the market at a wrong time. What are you thoughts on this?
I have recently bought SIS, PBH and other 5i BE stocks. I had placed some stink bids with my buy price atleast 10% below the price about a month ago and all those transactions went through to my surprise. The stocks are still falling further. I know for long term investment one should not worry about 10-20% fall in good companies but are institutions selling the companies followed by 5i portfolios and may be they are waiting to come back in at a much better pricing in near future ?

Thanks for the great service as always
Ninad

Read Answer Asked by Ninad on October 26, 2018
Q: I have received a proof of claim form for Amaya Inc. Securities, Seattle respecting a class action suit. I have received a dozen of these for companies that I have held in the past. My one experience of spending many hours filling out forms and paperwork and research and dealing with Siskinds LLP was after 2 years and a lot of my time, in the hopes of recovery my losses ($5,000.00), I received $150.00. Is it worthwhile for shareholders to go through this, or is it strictly a benefit to the lawyers to collect names for their suit?
As I started to bring this to your attention, I noticed someone has written in about webinars. Where do I find them? Thank you Dennis
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on October 24, 2018
Q: Based on some of my recent readings, it appears that companies with long term vs short term thinking and decision making processes outperform in the long run. A few companies that come to mind for me would with management teams that don’t worry only about their quarter to quarter numbers would be CSU, JPM, Berkshire and Amazon. Can you name as many companies as you see fit that meet this criteria ‘long termsism’ thinking that would be good long term buys in the USA or Canada? Thanks again
Read Answer Asked by Aaron on October 24, 2018
Q: I'd like to put some money in GIC's. Do you have any recommendations? My bank's GIC rates are much lower than the third party rates. There's only a flat fee of $20 to buy them so that doesn't bother me. The best returns seem to be offered by "Manulife Bank" and "Equitable". They are almost double the big banks. I'm leaning towards Manulife. Is there any risk when buying GIC's?
Read Answer Asked by John on October 23, 2018
Q: Is there any consideration to add Reddit style discussions with 5i members? Having such chats and posting the conversation may allow regular questions be answered and allow for follow up discussion. I'm sure there is some hesitation to get into lengthy debates over a specific investment, however you can also moderate the discussion to focus on a specific topic, such as what you are putting together with the video series.
Read Answer Asked by Gooding on October 22, 2018
Q: I had to respond to comments respond to comments regarding 5i's reluctance to issue early sell signals.
It's OK to want this, but the onus is on the individual investor to make those decisions him or herself. I'm shocked every time I see someone say I'm down 50% on this stock, is it time to sell?
If it's down 50% you need a double to break even.
I would suggest a stock rolling down a hill is unlikely to double in anything resembling a short time frame.
There are plenty of ideas on how to mitigate losses. Stops (I prefer mental because it gives me more freedom) to charting to just plain, common sense.
If people are willing to let their investments ride the roller coaster down, blaming the messenger won't fix the problem.
Sorry for the rant, but I pay attention every day. And make corrections as needed,
If a person doesn't have the time to invest it seems unlikely, to me, the money they invest will perform up to their expectations..
Read Answer Asked by Kyle on October 19, 2018
Q: My question has to do with the timing of portfolio rebalancing. I tend to rebalance at least semi-annually (summer, year-end) but don't have a hard and fast date at which I do so. I also do not tend to keep any cash in the portfolio and I tend to trim winners fairly quickly once they exceed 5% of my portfolio.

When we go through periods of sudden volatility, like the past week or two or when an official correction/recession hits, though, is the best time to re-balance? There are some stocks I consider to be good buys currently - KXS for example, that I do own already but, of course, my percentage weighting is now lower than it was a week or so ago. I fully expect it to go back up, at which time it would once again hold its "proper" weighting. But other stocks, PKI for example, has increased to the point where I might want to trim it. So do I sell some PKI to buy some KXS now, should I wait until I do my next official rebalancing around December, or rebalance now to take advantage of what I think are some good buys?

Appreciate your insight.

Paul F.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on October 17, 2018
Q: Hi team,
I really like the indepth company profiles. Well done! Would you consider creating a special report showing 3-year and 5-year dividend growth rates for all companies? Perhaps alongside other growth rates (earnings)? Growth (or lack of) rates often tell a better picture than "todays" rates. Which can cause blindness! Or do you know where I can find this information with few clicks on another site?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Randall on October 17, 2018
Q: For lack of better words, many stocks are presently on sale OR are atleast much lower than we paid for them, sometimes by a huge (very huge) margin. Assuming these opportunities are real, it would be an ideal time to add a little.

My understanding of your assessment is that you have high hopes for this company, believe that nothing has changed other than unpredictable market forces.

The stock has really dropped, which does not imply a bargain if it is still overpriced; however, my understanding is that we liked the stock at $2.00 and nothing has changed, so I must believe that this a great buying opportunity as long as we continue to properly diversify and understand that this may take 5-10 years. Your thoughts on this as a buying opportunity? Any new input from their mgmt? Any concerns with cash burnout over time? Other than wishing there were more sales contracts (which is definitely key), any other issues?

I ask these questions because I feel that we like to jump on the bandwagon when it is moving uphill with great momentum but want to ignore it when it is unwanted, even though it is the same bandwagon (i.e. same fundamentals). As a general comment are we not following a herd mentality (which is not wrong in itself on many occassions)? Should we not be greedy (at times) when others are fearful? I know this these are hard, fundamental questions about investing but your thoughts are appreciated OR maybe this could be the theme of a future blog... (I think that these are opportune times to pick up shares in companies we like even though their momentum is negative, even though we are buying the dips, even though we are possibly doubling down...)

As an aside, this was recently published. I just saw it this morning.
https://patient-monitoring.healthcaretechoutlook.com/vendors/top-patient-monitoring-solution-providers-2018.html

Thanks again!
Read Answer Asked by Walter on October 15, 2018
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