Investment Q&A

Q: I sold Sylogist a few months ago from fears of insider selling. I am just starting to accept I made a mistake and should buy back in. But already today I see volume on Sylogist is about three times normal. Should I assume this is more insider selling? Do you have any knowledge of anything significant happening?

Q: In their Fiscal 2014 report, the management "expected meaningful growth in fiscal 2015" and held cash per share $1.65. Given the large portion of business that comes from Western Canada what would you expect in terms of growth for 2015? Also in your October report you noted insider selling. Does this selling affect your otherwise positive opinion of management? Has that selling subsided? Would you be comfortable buying a small position here?
Sorry for the multiple questions.
Many thanks
Mike

Q: Hi Peter and Team, We have two positions of SYZ: one position in a RRIF and another position in a RRSP. We have made money in both, but SYZ has been lagging lately. How would you feel about replacing one of these positions with ABT which seems to be doing better presently?
Would it matter which position was swapped? Thanks in advance for the timely advice.

Q: Please advise if this is a good entry point for SYZ,DHX.B & HCG.I am heavy in can.banks Great top picks on Feb 4 on Market Call.CXI increased 20%,XTC 8.77% & BIN down 0.36% Appreciate your usual great advices & services

Q: I am trying to build a portfolio (total size about $110k) finally after 13 years of playing blindly and losing money every year and I am trying to flirt with diversification as well with positions ranging from 1% to 6%(excluding any financials and SIN stocks for religious reasons). I have the following current holdings. Can you let me know if I am diversified by sector and whether I am taking on too much risk. What would you recommend adding should I get rid of and what can I add? You don't have to do a detailed review and a brief answer will suffice. Thanks

APT.US,ACQ,BTO,RX,ZEO,CFL,CPH,CLR,CRH,DEE,DHX.B,DRT,DIV,ECI,
ET,XTC,FM,GRC,XIT,GUD,NHC,PHM,PGF,BIN,HACK,RKN,SVC,SCL,SYZ,
THO,TD-NASDAQ eFund,TGD,WEF

Q: HiPeter
I know you are high on this stock and guessing you are looking at the big drop as buying opportunity. Other than a few larger caps like CTC,MG,CNQ, I do not buy larger quantities if dividends are under 3%. That is the effective rate now at $8 per share. If the stock went back up to $10 or more,do you anticipate raising dividends to get to that rate or do you believe I will adequately rewarded otherwise(share price appreciation and dividend annually averaging more than a 5% yield on what you call an income stock)
Thanks for all you do
Dennis

Q: Hi Peter and Ryan,

Sorry to ask another Sylogist question.

Based on your analysis, what would you expect in terms of the FY '15 top line, earnings and cash flow? Secondly, based on these #'s and taking into account their top line growth, $1.50+ in cash, dividend, and No debt - would you find value in the share price at $8.00? Where would a good point be to increase a moderate position?

Because of the lack of analysts, and cheer leading from the company, I suspect there is a significant opportunity with the latest "bad" news report.

Thanks,

J.

Q: SYZ has been taking quite the beating lately. Any reason why? Has anything fundamentally changed with the company? I currently hold it (bought at $9.75), but am debating selling it and buying DSG instead. What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks,

Jordan

Q: In looking at the most recent results from SYZ it would appear that the stock is trading at 10x sales and an EV/EBITDA of over 25x. Do you not find this expensive for a company that only grew its EBITDA by 15% last year?

Q: SYZ is getting pounded today. would you say further negativity from the most recent earnings report? You mention it was decent and are optimistic about future growth... however, it's down nearly 15% right now. possibly, insiders selling? would you revise forecasts further down given their proximity to Alberta oil.

Q: Hi, could you please provide an analysis of Sylogist's results, released today. Should the drop in annual profit despite much higher revenues be a concern? Where do you see stock going in next 12 months? Thanks

Q: Good Morning Peter, Ryan, and Team,
Would you consider Sylogist, trading at approximately $9.10 this morning, a good company at an attractive price ??? There seems to be no news lately which has caused the stock to drift slowly, but steadily, downward. I greatly value your opinion. Thank you. DL

Q: Hi, My question from Sunday appears to have been lost, so I'll try to resubmit. There has been a melt down in Sylogist stock price for past few weeks and my suspicion is that it could be due to fear of slowing regional economy due to slide in oil prices. It's a bit concerning as Technology sector, broadly has been a strong sector lately. Can you please share your thoughts on this and if Sylogist has a risk of its major customers curtail spending in IT area. Thanks

Q: I just re-read Ryan's excellent article highlighting stocks flying under the radar.

I believe that SYZ was one of Peter's picks 2-3 years ago for one of the many stock picking contests he has won. SYZ has gone from under $3 to $12 - and still has zero analyst coverage. I would think that kind of performance puts it into a very special category. Is the lack of coverage incompetence on the part of the analysts and their managers who run the funds, or is there something intrinsic about SYZ that keeps them away?

Thanks to you I am a well rewarded owner of SYZ, but still find the lack of coverage intriguing; but would expect this to change with even more of a share price increase in the future and am looking to add to it.

Would you concur?

Thanks - on many levels for your service.

Q: I hold Sylogist as 5.6% of my portfolio, with a nice healthy gain (yesterday's price) of 47.7%. (Thank you!) Having hit its all time high in the early fall at $12, it can never seem to push beyond that. Is it time to claim profits and re-assign the very healthy profits to another more growth-oriented stock, or do you foresee impending catalyst to take this stock higher?

In another semi-related matter, I find it difficult to wrap my mind around what is termed "Book Value". I assumed that Book Value meant the price you paid for the stock, factoring in the trading fees, for a net purchase value. I notice, however, that Book Value fluctuates, from week to week. Am I going cross-eyed, or is there a logical explanation for the floating values? Excuse my naivety on this one, but I'm honestly perplexed. Thanks, as always, for your valuable comments.

Q: I wish to add to my holdings of technology stocks. What would you recommend? If establishing a preference order, what order would you assign to SYZ, VCM, XTC and ET? Many thanks

Q: I was talking to Peter at the Money Show along and so were many others. I put in limit orders and would it be a good thing if I put the limit order for more than one day? Asking about a couple of my holdings SYZ has large daily swings of almost 10% - is this indicating something? DEE (Delphi) has been in a downwards trend about the biggest downward trend of the resource sector and I noticed some negative news on it on October 23 and it escalated the fall. Is there any hope for this security?

Dennis

Q: Just wondering why SYZ and GUD are not participating in this recent rally?

Dennis

Q: Is there a way of telling just when that huge reversal of SYZ's fall happened? At one point very close to end of day it was showing down over 8%. Then suddenly it rocketed up to finish the day even. The weird thing is I was looking at it on my TD screen. I wasn't going to sell that low but it suddenly showed SYZ as being back up to 10.95. I sold some at that point, for this stock has gotten way too volatile for me, but when I checked it turned out I sold at the low of the day somehow.

Q: syz was halted . no info on company website. what did they do?