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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: Hi Team,
On a Corporate account, where capital gain is the main goal for long term hold.
Consumer Staple holdings are ATD.b 6 % PF & 15% gain & MRU 1.8% PF, 8.5% gain.
Your thought on MRU, (hold or sell) ?
Want to add 2.5% one another Cons Staple stock Ca or US. You suggestion please.
Thanks. Best Regards

Read Answer Asked by Djamel on August 05, 2020
Q: Hi 5i team,
I own MSFT and am following a potential TikTok deal. You mentioned in an answer that you think the odds of a deal are now lower, but anything is possible. That does not sound like high odds. Is that because Trump is looking for a payment to the Treasury for what he views as brokering a deal. Is this legal or does it matter with him? Or are there other reasons for lower odds. How would you place the odds at this point? It seems to have been awhile since MSFT was active in the M&A space.
Thanks again.
Dave
Read Answer Asked by Dave on August 05, 2020
Q: I hold these energy related stocks which are all in the red from 15% to 45%. In what order would you rank them? Would you sell all of them or keep some? If there is no tax loss that can be offset against tax gain, would you still sell some or all of them?
Read Answer Asked by David on August 05, 2020
Q: Thank you for the quick response to my ER/AUG. After reading your response, I realized that with ER currently trading at .26, its way below the implied deal price of .42 and I would potentially be leaving a lot of money on the table if I was to sell now and buy AUG. Hence I am best to wait selling my ER to see where all this settles as you suggest. Having said that, my reason to sell was to capture a large loss on ER shares while keeping my AUG exposure - however, if the deal goes through, would the conversion to .117 shares of the new company FURY be considered a deemed disposition of ER??? In that case if I do nothing I would be able to claim the capital loss of ER and still get the new Fury shares if/when the deal goes through? Correct?
Read Answer Asked by Scott on August 05, 2020
Q: I'm interested to hear your feedback about the growth potential (and risk) of the renewable energy theme. What stocks would you recommend, and for how long of a hold?
TIA!
Read Answer Asked by Brenda on August 05, 2020
Q: I often see/read commentary ahead of earnings for a stock that it misses/beats a certain % of the time. This is often followed by a percentage of sensitivity or average strength of a move after earnings. My question is if you know of a source for both US listed and TSX stocks that shows each of these figures? As an example, Livongo and Guardant Health both report next week. Is there a source that can tell me how often GH beats or misses and what a typical % price move would be? The % move post earnings is the more important part of this question. It would seem to be helpful in setting a price point to buy on a post earnings dip or to sell into good news.
Thanks as always!
Read Answer Asked by Tim on August 05, 2020
Q: I'd appreciate your opinion on CWO ( Shares emerging mkt). MDM070 ( MD Growth) & MDM050( MD Equity fund). Thank you. Fooklin
Read Answer Asked by Fooklin on August 05, 2020
Q: Hello there

can you suggest which canadian REITs you favor these days, and why.

second, I am looking for US etfs that covers the high tech sector and others for the health care sector. Your thoughts. please

as always. your guidance is appreciated

thanks
Read Answer Asked by alex on August 05, 2020
Q: Hello 5i Research
Thank you for all the questions and answers that you post every day. I start everyday reading all the post to keep me informed.
I currently own visa and MasterCard in my RRSP , do you recommend switching to SQ or/and PayPal at this time?
Thank you for your great service.
Claudio
Read Answer Asked by claudio on August 05, 2020
Q: Can I open an resp for grandchildren with existing holdings by transferring (opening an resp) there are gains on the stock is it considered a gain.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on August 05, 2020
Q: Adjusted earnings is a scam! (in my opinion). It blows my mind how much attention people pay to adjusted earnings vs GAAP earnings. Management of any company is probably in the most biased position and has the most incentive to paint a rosy picture. This is why GAAP and IFRS exist...to stop management from being able to go into this fantasy land where they can pretend any expenses/cash outflows they don't like never happened.

One of the adjustments I understand the least is the elimination of stock based compensation from expenses when calculating adjusted earnings. Lets pretend there are 2 identical companies. The only difference is company A pays its CEO in stock, and company B pays its CEO in salary for an equivalent amount. Company A will finish the year with higher earnings, however there will be more shares outstanding. As a result, earnings per share (which is what actually matters to an investor) between both companies will be the same (excluded tax impact). This is why it makes no sense in my view for company A to adjust its earnings higher and show higher adjusted earnings vs the identical company B.

The other point I find comical is that companies claim to adjust earnings for 1 time items...yet there are 1 time items every single quarter.... perhaps these 1 time items are part of running the business then?

The worst example might be excluding the write down of Goodwill. News flash manager...that means you made a mistake and over paid for a business...and now you want to pretend it never happened by excluding the write down from earnings?...

My question is surrounding the history of adjusted earnings. How long has this been around for, and is it possible that these (always higher) adjusted earnings are giving the illusion that companies are less over values then they actually might be?

Thanks,
A concerned CPA....

Read Answer Asked by Joel on August 05, 2020
Q: What are your favourite Canadian industrials stocks for growth and for stability (or maybe both) right now?

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on August 05, 2020
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