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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, like a few others at 5i is fully aware of your position on STB and I completely agree based on it's financial condition. On any metric, it certainly does not meet the basic criteria for any solid investment.
Nevertheless, I made a second investment in January 2016 for my wife's cash acct simply to augment her monthly dividend income. As of today, we are up 70% - go figure! The only rational I can see is whether the previous very large shareholder in France has made a change in thinking after selling its very substantial holdings or else another 3rd party has recognized the attraction of STB's growing fleet of national school bus operations as leverage for a much larger merger.?? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Robert on April 11, 2017
Q: Hi 5I, I need some clarification on time horizons and when to switch out and/or sell a company. If one says that they are holding long what time frame are we looking at? Sometimes I hear 3 to 5 years, other times 5 to 10 years. But in all of your portfolios what is the design factor? If one is long term investor and a stock has gone up 40%+ why would you need to sell it if the time horizon has not been completed? Timing has not done well for me. So I know that re balancing a portfolio means not going over a certain weighting per stock or sector for safety but what are you usually looking at to get out of a stock. Sometimes you say you are comfortable in people getting into a stock for long term but then you might turn around and move it out of the portfolio. So should I follow a multi-year hold, or follow the portfolio with the recommended in's and out's as you try to make the model better. Thanks for your advice.
Read Answer Asked by Ben on April 11, 2017
Q: Peter, as a former portfolio manager, how do you buy large volumes of shares? Would you execute the order yourself or would you have a team to do this? My personal portfolio is over 8 digits so I always question myself on how to execute positions. I currently only buy companies greater than $400 million and always calculate the average daily volume multiplied by the current price to see if my trade will change the market. I take a current price and discount it by an educated guess % and enter the whole trade in and let it sit and the market move into my buy. This way I am not bidding up the stock. The bank has offered block trades, but I am not in control. In your experience what is the best way to enter and/or exit a large position?
Read Answer Asked by Terry on April 11, 2017
Q: Hey 5i team,

It seems as though the solar power industry is gaining traction in the global market, and will continue to do so in the coming years.

With the ever-increasing efficiency of emerging storage solutions to help mitigate problems attributed with solar (ie the duck curve), it appears as though more nation's are beggining to view solar as a feasible option... I'm thinking about the South Australian government's plans for battery storage and India's solar boom.

Can you provide any comments on this trend, and are there any ETF's or indiviual stocks you like, that play the solar market on a global scale?

Always appreciate your input!
Read Answer Asked by Mark on April 11, 2017
Q: Hi 5i Team,

Several websites that comment on stocks rate Mercado Libre (MELI) very highly. I know you don't follow international stocks as closely as Canadian securities, but you do have access to a Bloomberg terminal and perhaps other paying stock research sites. I'm hesitating to buy MELI because it has risen so much in the last year and the probability of a reversion to the mean or a drawdown is that much greater today. Are my concerns misplaced with this company?
Robert
Read Answer Asked by Robert on April 11, 2017
Q: What 5 stocks would be your top picks to place in a TFSA for 2017?

Shirley
Read Answer Asked by shirley on April 11, 2017
Q: In the last question related to CRH, you indicated that it had a forward PE Ratio of over 40X, and a P/BV ratio of 14X.
That sounds very expensive, even if it is a high growth stock. How is this any different than some of the marijuana stocks you have indicated we should avoid due to extended valuations?

I guess my question is - how do you know when a stock is too expensive? Is there a metric one can use that says x% revenue growth can be priced as high as 'y' P/E or 'z' P/BV?
Read Answer Asked by Mike on April 11, 2017
Q: I was recently reading an article about a somewhat prominent US investor who runs an extremely concentrated portfolio. I was rather startled to see that DSG was one of his choices. For example, FB was one of his other tech holdings. I would appreciate your thoughts about the long term future of DSG and why this stock may have been selected in preference to the numerous other tech possibilities. I believe the existence of a moat is a key criteria for this investor.
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on April 11, 2017
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