Investment Q&A

Q: I own JPM and BB&T and have noticed some nice gains in U.S. banks. As a broader-based U.S. financial instrument, would this be a good buy for both decent growth and a juicy yield?
Thanks

Q: Peter, With all the talk of cyber security, I would like to make an investment in that space. I know of no way to do that on a Canadian market, but maybe you do. Is there an ETF which covers this sector? Between the big players like Fire Eye, Palo Alto, Cisco or others, how would you play it? Or would you avoid this area all together due to valuations?

Q: Peter and His Wonder Team
I am not sure if you can help with this one because I know you do not cover American stocks. It is a small company and suddenly rose 17.4% yesterday. Can you see any news coming through that might explain this.If you cannot help I totally understand! Thanks as always for your great service!
Dr.Ernest Rivait

Q: I was hoping you could provide a rough outline as to how you would determine the inclusion of each sector in a balanced portfolio, and what weights you would allocate to each sector. I have reviewed each of the portfolios you have constructed, but I am still unclear, in some cases, as to which companies belong to which sectors, and what the ideal weighting for each sector is (e.g. financials, manufacturing, resources). I did read the descriptions of the sectors in the balanced equity and income portfolios (noting that your sector weight distribution varies between the portfolios), and understand the different goals of each, but I was wondering if you could either directly state, or point me to the appropriate resource which describes appropriate weights (or ranges of weights) of sectors within a balanced portfolio. If this question proves to be too broad for this forum, I will gratefully accept any guidance you would have to offer. Thank you for your time and efforts.

Q: Good Morning Peter. Thanks for your great service and am learning a lot from your reports and questions. Reply to my question may take more than regular of your time and efforts, hence feel free to deduct double the quota of question from my account.
I am a 41 year old, medium risk taker, can hold / wait for a 3-5 year horizon and looking primarily for growth. I started my portfolio back in 2012 , currently total investment over my tfsa, rrsp and resp is about 150k. I have not made any profits with this money in this 3 years thanks to my investments in BDI, Autocanada, HNL ,Entrec,Goldcorp and avigilion to name a few. I have sold most of my losing stocks, but not under water at this time. My current portfolio include Avigilion (3.4%), Wi-Lan(2.2%), Knight Thearauptics (3.8%) , CYB (2.25), Canaccord Financial CF(2%), CHP.UN.TO (2.1%), CIX (2.2%), SYZ (1.5%), RX (1.9%), ENT(0.6%). I also have mutual funds / Portfolios of banks like MAW106(10%), MAW150 (3.5%),RBF1025(3.8%), TD Monthly income TDB622(2.5%) , RBF209(14.4%) and RBF459(5.6%). I have couple of ETF’s VIG and IWO (total at 5%). I have cash and cash equivalents at about 29%.
I am planning to invest some of my cash , cash equivalents money and want to sell RBF209 and RBF459 and invest in individual growth stocks. Based on above , can you suggest me some growth stocks/mutual funds / etf’s to invest please? Do you see any stocks that I need to get rid of at this time?

Q: After its recent runup, is there much more upside to ATS?

Q: What do you think about CLR? Can you please comment on its relationship with interest rates and how defensive of a stock you think it is?
Thank you.

Q: My portfolio is primarily stocks. Only bond position is XHY at 2.5% of portfolio. Want to add considerable fixed rate/bond holdings to get some balance. Could you make some suggestions. Thanks.
Dave

Q: Hello Peter and the 5I team
I am curious about NXP, is this a good tech company to own at this time? The semiconductor buisness is extremely cyclical. I was wondering where are we in that cycle? What are some of NXP's flag ship products and who are their main competition? Would you add this company to a well diversified portfolio or is there a better company out there to buy? Should a person be concerned with the currency risk?

Thank you

Q: I presently hold Concordia, PHM, Walgreen and CVS. In an attempt to increase the health care portion of my portfolio to roughly ten percent I am contemplating purchasing UNH ( United Healthcare) Appreciating you don't really cover US Stocks would I be better off simply adding to my CVS. Is there an overlap here between CVS and UNH and possibly WBA?
Thanks

Q: This stock keeps going down. Is there any chance it has reached a bottom?

Q: On June 2, Clare asked about sector allocation percentages, and I noticed that you recommended 20% for technology and industrials. Previous recommedations earlier in the year for these two sectors were 10 - 15%, depending on the type of investor. Could you explain the increase, please?

Q: Hello Peter, My question is about rebalancing for optimizing future growth with possible interest rate hikes. I have listened to an advisor who suggests the U.S. is the place to be for a large portion of my portfolio - consumer discretionary, health care with bio, U.S. financials, and technology. I am considering selling my CAD banks, telecoms, REIT's etc. to go into these sectors. Citigroup, Wells, Starbucks, Disney, NXPI Semi-conductors are what I am looking at. I am already in Abbot Labs and a SPDR Healthcare ETF. Does this sound like a good plan to you? Thanks, I so appreciate your opinion.

Q: Hi,

My question is regarding Andrew Peller's recent results and would like your comments. It looks like a strong quarter with increase in sales, gross margins and a dividend increase.
With a stock having no analyst coverage how does one get a guage on future earnings growth to know when a stock has become "expensive"?
Thanks

Q: Good Morning Peter, How do you look at selections from the month before that have lagged ? Is it a good chance to pick them up or do you steer clear ?
Thank you.

Q: In a $100,000 portfolio, keeping to a full position @ 5% = $5000, does it make sense to buy only 10 shares of CSU and/or approx 20 shares of VRX. As I am typing this I realize it is not the number of shares but the return on the $5000. Does this make sense.

Thank you as always.
Craig

Q: David Burrows on BNN believes in going with what is working and getting out of what is not working. He's one of the handful of BNN guests who seem worth listening to (Hodson is not bad either). What is working for me in Canada is tech, pharma, and some non-bank financials (ESL,CSU,MSL,EFN). What is not working are the pipelines and utilities (ALA,AQN). Should I be buying more of what works and selling down what isn't? Thanks for your comments.

Q: Can you comment on AXL's recent earnings, their outlook and if you can see any reason for the recent drop? I am tempted to add to my position but would appreciate your insight before doing so. Thanks again.

Q: Peter and His Wonder Team
On April 30th in response to a question you choose CPX over TA and stated TA was expensive. Since then TA has fallen approximately 20%.What do you think has caused this? Is it company related, the sector or fear of the NDP...or all three? If the shares fell another 10% or 15% would you consider it a possible long term contrarian play? Thanks for your thoughts!
Dr. Ernest Rivait

Q: It seems every time I turn on BNN, I hear some pundit spouting baseball analogies: as consensus goes, we are apparently in the 9th inning of a bull market, maybe even the bottom of the 9th. A few managers have commented that we're batting into extra innings and that a correction is long overdue. What does all this mean, in real terms?

It seemed to me we had a correction in October -- my portfolio took a good 10% hit, and although I've recovered nicely, and have even outstripped what my "pre-correction" gains were, it seems I can't differentiate from a "correction" (with a small "c") as opposed to THE CORRECTION, (all caps). Pardon the cheekiness, but ... really ... !? they leave themselves open to such interpretation.

I would dearly love to hear from Peter what his take is on all this correcting that's going to be happening. Should I shore myself up now, before the flood hits?

In 2008-09, I was not fully invested, and so never took the hit that many of my colleagues and friends did, simply because I had a lot in cash, so I have no personal experience on what it feels like to be corrected.

Thanks, as always, for your advice.