Investment Q&A

Q: Hi 5i Team,

What are the chances of Calfrac (CFW) or Trican (TCW) surviving the next 12-24 months. Would either one of these or any other oil service company be worth purchasing during tax loss selling?
When you look at book value of these 2 companies is it calculated with or without debt factored in? Am I right to assume there will be write downs in book value coming?
Thanks, Shane

Q: Is there anything happening with this company?Did they halt ?

Q: Hello,

We would like to buy a healthcare stock and are considering ENL , CXR and GUD.
Which one would you prefer at this time for a 5 year hold period.

Thank you

Q: Caveat – you are not tax experts.
Can you direct me to a source, or can you comment on the COS/SU share exchange as to whether or not this is a taxable event?
Further, would the ACB of the SU shares received in the exchange be the ACB of the COS shares that are exchanged?

Q: Just my thoughts on the Cho 100 fund question. Post at your discretion:

Although I'm not a holder of this fund and do also strongly recommend Mawer, from a management perspective, I believe Chou is one of the best in the industry:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/strategy-lab/value-investing/a-fund-manager-who-refunds-fees-meet-francis-chou/article18405672/?service=mobile

Francis Chou has even refunded fees in the past for poor performing funds, and his value strategies usually take many years to pan out. A large cash balance is likely due to not finding many value stocks in current market conditions. This also provides the ability for the fund to 'pounce' when opportunities do come up.

Q: I have a position in GS. Could you please comment on recent results and your thoughts going forward. Many thanks as always.

Q: I like the long term potential within the Uranium sector for future electricity generation. I'm looking to invest in the sector for the long term ( at least 5 yrs +) as I believe there is a forecasted supply shortfall emerging between 2018-2020 that could last many years. BAN looks interesting but at $0.03/share also looks very risky with about $8 mill in debt. I'm also looking at Denison and UEX with no debt. Is BAN a survivor for the next upcycle? What do you think of a basket of these juniors?
Thank-you.

Q: Could you update your thoughts on Encore Capital - once again, a very solid quarterly result and yet the stock is dropping quite substantially (last update July/14).
Thanks,
Murray

Q: If it is important to look for well run companies, especially when the management has a lot of skin in the game then perhaps you could give a best guess opinion on this play. Although not on the I5research radar as this is on the NYSE I have a full weighting of Nordic American Tankers using this approach. They have a subsidiary listed company called Nordic American Offshore which has fleet of oil rig supply and service vessels. The owner and son recently bought a very large stake in the company they already held a large control over. Now they have used the parent funds to add another big chunk from 19.8 to 26.25 %. The price was $6.25. The last today was $5.55. I have an underweight position in Nordic American Offshore. Both are huge dividend payers. NAT is very liquid and NAO is small to ok on liquidity. NAT is extremely profitable and NAO is just below break even.
The question is, which would be the more growth play based on your past experiences. The parent or the child? Thanks for the great service.

Q: UrtheCast Corp released their third quarter results this week. Would you please provide your comments. Did the meet expectations and would you recommend continuing to hold this stock? Thanks

Q: Hey Peter & Team,

Trying to get a handle on Merus. I bought a full position @ $1.94 in Jan 2015. Sold 50% at $3.26 in July. Today it is trading @ $1.55.

The street sentiments appear to be fluctuating quite a bit... Early Oct it carried a Strong Buy recommendation from multiple sources with target prices ranging between $3.25 & $4.25. 3 weeks later Mackie & Scotia reduced their targets from $4.25 - $2.70.

Are you able to shed any light on MSL and what we could expect moving forward?

Thanks for all you do

Gord

Q: Can I get your opinion on the quarter? If you were to rate using your A B C system, what rating would you give this stock.

Q: Would you consider Tupperware a candidate for a dividend portfolio? Is there a high probability of future dividend growth?

Q: Currently I own small amounts of BMG100 & SLW as insurance; each has been held for 2-3 years and are in loss positions now. I am considering selling both to take advantage of the losses to offset gains. The 2 closed-end funds (GTU.UN & CEF.A) have performed better than BMG100 & SLW during the same period, so I was thinking of replacing my insurance with small amounts of GTU.UN & CEF.A rather than waiting 30 days and then buying back BMG100 & SLW. I would like your opinion of this plan.

Also, when purchasing a thinly traded stock such as GTU.UN how should one go about finding the optimum bid price, or should one place a market order?

Q: Hello 5i, I triggered some gains earlier this year, and am considering potential tax loss selling targets. The pool contains SLW, HWO, GEI and QCOM (all in a non-reg acct). I have read your questions archive concerning these companies. I have what I believe is a nicely-diversified portfolio and do not need the proceeds but am cognizant of the opportunity cost of stagnant money being tied up. The 3 sectors represented in the 4 companies have had some rough times and nobody knows when the sky will clear. SLW has the lowest div of the 4. Do you folks have any points one should consider when prioritizing which one/ones to sell(putting the names in a hat is a fair answer IMO). Thank you in advance.

Q: I am a retired, conservative dividend income investor, with a well diversified portfolio of stocks, ETFs and mutual funds (AD, AQN, ALA, BCE, BNS, CGX, CPG, PBH, RY, SLF, WCP, WEF, WSP, XIT, ZLB, RBC Cdn Eqty Inc, Sentry Cdn Inc, Sentry REIT, Insured Annuities, Fisgard Capital), as well as a company pension and CPP.

Question # 1: BCE is 4.0% of my TOTAL portfolio, but 6.1% of just my EQUITY portfolio. When you discuss stock weightings, is it of the total portfolio or only the equity portfolio? What general guidelines do you recommend? I use roughly 2-4% per stock, and 4-10% for either ETFs or Mutual Funds.

Question # 2: My asset mix is 65% equities and 35% fixed income. Within equities only, my mix is 25% finance, 18% utilities, 17% consumer, 4% health, 14% industrial, 9% info tech, 10% energy and 4% materials.

I am looking for a very conservative, blue-chip, dividend-paying stock (> 3% dividend) to add and I'm not sure which sector to top up. Please point me to the right sector (or two) with 3-5 stocks to consider.

Thanks, Steve

Q: There are cases where stocks fall because people are taking profits and not because there is something wrong with the company; e.g. WSP today as you suggested to other subscribers. What should we be doing in this case? Just hang on? Or join the profit taking crowd and sell? I am up slightly on WSP, but I definitely did have higher gains prior to the recent sell-off. Would it make sense to take profit and buy back later?


Thanks,
Danny

Q: Your comments and future outlook pls. on the Q3 results. Why the drop in the stock price?
Thank you!

Q: Could I please get your opinion on the financial results out today on this company. Thank you
Garry

Q: Any idea why WSP is tanking the past 2 days? Thank you.