Investment Q&A

Q: Peter and Ryan,
I read recently that you feel the consumer discretionary and consumer staples sectors should be top priorities in a conservative income investor's portfolio. Would you please suggest 3-4 companies in each sector that you currently think would provide well balanced sector representation. Understanding your focus is Canadian companies, if possible, I would appreciate 1-2 American companies be included as well. As always, thanks for your most appreciated guidance.

Q: Hello Peter et al.

I have a question regarding stock manipulation. I hear people mentioning about brokerage firms selling small lots of 100 shares to try and keep the stock price down. How does this work for the brokerage firm? Are they not losing money unless they are shorting the stock? If they are not shorting the stock would they not want the stock price to rise to make money? How does this theory work?

Thanks but confused,

Brendan

Q: I bought some Zargon debentures as a speculation under $50 and they have had a good run with the news of an asset sale. Assuming the sale closes and net debt is down to $35 million do you think the debentures should be held to redemption next year or does the remaining risk favor cashing in now.
Also, does Toscana's sale of 6% of their production to reduce their debt by about 20% improve the prospects of that company's debentures enough to consider them?
Thanks, Jason

Q: Cleaning up a portfolio: I want to know where I could have ideas on how I go about to clean my portfolio. I have too many stocks (losers and winners) in both registered and non-registered accounts. Obviously, I could sell the less promising losers and winners. But I was wondering what are, if any, some of the guidelines as to how to proceed, how many stocks is optimal for a portfolio (around 20 from what I gather so far). Moreover, I have some losers that amount to few hundreds of dollars and would be costly to sell with the commission of 9,99$ per transaction. So I would appreciate pointers and references (books or website) to help me sort things out.

Thanks to you and to the members that would be kind enough to help.

Jean

Q: In a recent answer to a question on syz, esl and csu you said
" SYZ and ESL have historically always had high multiples. Keep in mind also that both have large cash balances which if excluded would lower earnings valuations ".
Can you clarify how large cash balances affect earnings multiples?
How would this be calculated for example with SYZ? ie how much would their current cash balance lower their P/E?

Thanks, as always, for a great service.

Rob

Q: Good Afternoon,
I am adding several positions to my portfolio. I have narrowed it down by using your reports/comments etc. . Some of the reports are dated, would like to know if you still consider these names a buy at today's level, or any other more favoured names in these sectors. Also wondering if you would recommend staggering purchases or waiting for a market pullback, realizing that some of these names are high.
All would be additions to a diversified portfolio and considered to be long term holds. Thanks for the assistance. Lavern

Q: Patient Home Monitoring announced they will hold a conference call on Aug 24th to review the Qtr results and update the market (not shareholders) on plans for 2016 and beyond. Participants will be the CEO and CSO. No mention of the new CFO they announced on June 29th. What's your read on why they wouldn't take this opportunity to formerly introduce the CFO to the market? Do you think this is because the results may be okay and the forward strategy is what they want the market to focus on?

Q: I have 20k in which to invest in a new TFSA what are your thoughts on the following as to dividend growth and safety NFI KEY PBH WPK PLC This is for a long term hold
THKS much

Q: Enjoying the Savaria ride. Great Story. Nice call. Slowly growing small company. Are there any other Companies that you are following that are up and coming similar to the Savaria Story. Low under the Radar. Keep up the Great Work. Thanks for everything.

Q: I own many stocks from the growth portfolio, but not QHR. Please confirm that, given recent events and it's current price, I shouldn't purchase any now.

Q: The current trading price of QHR at 3.10 appears to be quite a bit below the valuation calculated by dividing the offer of 170m by the outstanding shares. I get a value of 3.25 which seems worth waiting for. Do you agree? Thanks

Q: I would appreciate your suggestions in what to do with this stock. Are my options selling or acquiring Loblaw stock or is acquiring Loblaw stock an option? If I sell I will have a nice capital gain which I will have to declare as I hold it in a non registered account. If I were to acquire Loblaw stock and then sell Loblaw in a few months does a capital gain apply? Thank You.

Q: Just wondering with todays news if we should hold or sell?
Thanks
John

Q: Would you comsider trimming PKI if today's movement causes it's weighting in the BE portfolio to increase fairly significantly?

Q: How does this recent deal in purchasing Assets affect PKIs outlook? Will it tilt the valuation metric towards a growth by acquisition model? I am thinking of the valuation as compared to ATD. The deal looks sizeable to PKI.

Q: What happening with Parkland . Big jump this morning

Q: I have some cash and would like to add to an existing position. do you think it's too "rich" at this stage and should I wait for a better entry point?

Q: What are your thoughts about Dollarama at these levels? I was lucky to get in around $70 last Jan/Feb and it has run up to nearly $100 now. Would you recommend rotating to something like PBH?

Q: Hi Team, I held hlf last year and every quarter my frustration increased, all of this to say that this company can't seem to report 2 good quarters in a row. Now that the hurd seems to be piling into the stock again, I am thinking of shorting the stock around $25 or slightly below. What do you think?

I am also thinking of a pair-trade long pbh if I can pick it up around 56-58.

Q: I am looking for capital appreciation with some divided growth. I am considering ZZZ for a 3 to 5 year hold. Would you agree with this purchase of prefer something else to consider.

thanks