Investment Q&A

Q: Good morning again, I just sent the beginning of a question and inadvertently sent it before I finished!
Here it is , hopefully in its entirety,
I am building a long term portfolio, 10 plus years, and would like to add 2 or 3 Large US Technology stocks. I am looking at AAPL , GOOG AMZN and MSFT , I already have NVDA and are not interested in FB. Any thoughts on the above, which order would you suggest buying them in, and are there any others I should consider? Also can you explain the difference between GOOG and GOOGL Thank you

Q: My 28yr old son is looking to build a diversified ETF portfolio with 100% equity exposure with a bent towards growth given his long investment horizon.  These will be spread across his TFSA, RRSP and Non-Registered accounts.  Since he will be contributing smaller amounts on a regular basis a zero commission platform such as Wealthsimple is appealing.  However, they charge 1.5% fee for all currency conversions making it only practical to hold Canadian traded ETF's.  As a result he is considering the following:

ZSP 40%
XIC 25%
TEC 20%
VIU 10%
VEE 5%

ZSP + XIC + VIU + VEE together create a mix of ETFs that are globally diversified and very similar to the structure of XEQT/VEQT.  Versus XEQT/VEQT This portfolio has a slightly lower weighted-average MER at 0.16% and also has 20% in TEC (in place of something like QQQ) which is more growth oriented. Here are how the sectors would be weighted with this portfolio:

Info 31%
Financial 15%
Cons Disc 11%
Industrial 9%
Healthcare 8%
Communica 7%
Cons Staples 5%
Energy 5%
Materials 4%
Utilities 2%
Real Estate 2%

These would be the top 10 holdings with this portfolio and these top 10 would account for 24% of holdings in this portfolio:

AAPL5.1% MSFT4.9% AMZN3.2% GOOGL1.8% FB1.7% GOOG1.7% TSLA1.5% SHOP1.4% RY1.2% NVDA1.2%

If this was you at 28, can you please comment on
- are the 5 ETFs he has chosen ones you would go with given his objectives, if not, what changes/substitutes would you make along with recommended % allocations?
- is his % allocation across the 5 appropriate or would you make changes? For example I thought there might be too much overlap between ZSP and TEC as they are both highly invested in AAPL, MSFT, AMZ and FB and he is looking at 60% going into these 2 ETF's. That may well be what you want at his age but  I wonder if he is better served by reducing ZSP to 25% -30% and TEC to 15% and add  the remaining 15-20% to CDZ or VGG (or something else?)
- given he will be making contributions to his TFSA, RRSP and Non-registered, which ETF would be best in which account and why? 

Thanks for all your help, 
Scott

Q: Hi 5i,
What are your thoughts on the rumoured, from several sources, PYPL bid for PINS at around $70 a share? It seems like a lowball bid. Not much of a premium and not even close to taking out the yearly high of PINS. On what metric would you evaluate this bid and how does it compare to peer group acquisitions in the past couple of years? How do you see this playing out in the market? Other potential bidders?
Thanks again.
Dave

Q: Hi 5i Team,
Do you have a preference for long term growth in US banks? I was considering JP Morgan or Bank of America. Any preference here or other suggestion? Looking for long term growth.
Secondly, could you suggest 5 US stocks with good positive momentum that you would invest in now? Sector is not important for these suggestions.
Thanks,
Linda Nemis

Q: I need to reduce my technology holdings to balance to the Portfolio Analytics suggested weights. In tech I am biased towards growth and strong fundamentals. Which of the above listed would you sell (if any). Are there any companies in technology that you would consider "must own" names in such a portfolio?
Deduct as many points a you wish.
Many Thanks for you help
John

Q: Hi There,

Can you please explain the emergence of the Canadian Depositary Receipts (CDRs), how they work, under what circumstances one should buy them ie. what kind of investor how they trade, and your overall opinion on them?

Thank you!

Q: Am wondering which of these stocks are vulnerable to climbing interest rates. For the vulnerable ones, would you please advise at what point you would consider reducing or selling them. Also, a strategy on when and how to do such an assessment would be instructive.

Thanks for your great advice. Most of your subscribers say this regularly, but they probably really mean it ! If it weren't for 5i, I'd still be holding a bag of mutual funds not knowing how big my losses were.

Whatever number of credits works

ConsCyc US:NIO
ConsDef US:CELH
ConsDef US:COST
Enrgy CPX
Enrgy AQN
ETF VGG
FinSvcs RY
FinSvcs US:V
FinSvcs SLF
FinSvcs US:MCO
FinSvcs GSY
FinSvcs BNS
FinSvcs US:BAM
FinSvcs US:JPM
Heal US:MDT
Heal WELL
Ind US:RTX
RealEst US:RDFN
Tech SHOP
Tech KXS
Tech US:MSFT
Tech US:CRWD
Tech US:U
Tech US:CRM
Telco BCE
Telco T
Util US:BEP
Util CU

Q: Hi 5i - what would your top income stocks recco be for US and CDN. Thx and stay safe! - Doug

Q: Hi team,
I bought Verizon two years ago in expectation of a stable price and a good dividend. Two years later it is down 11% eating up the dividend and leaving me essentially where I started. Would it make sense to sell VZ and use the funds to buy IBM which has a similar dividend and perhaps some growth potential? I can also claim the tax loss on Verizon.

Q: HELLO 5i TEAM, I'm looking to add a couple of tech stocks after this down draw is past. Please advise the "NET DEBT" for each of the above companies, and which 5i would recommend a buy in a month or so.

Q: Hi 5i,

In regards to AMZN, MSFT and GOOGL.
At a high level why are rising interest less desirable than having low interest rates. It seems the market gets spooked if it believes interest will rise. I hope you can explain the overall thinking.

Q: Hello Team,
Could you rank these securities in terms of growth going forward, strength of business and safety.
Thank You,
Barry

Q: I currently own these companies. I have some US cash to add to my TFSA and would like your recommendation on 5 additional best of breed companies. Or would you increase number of shares in the companies I already own.

Thanks, Donna

Q: Peter your opinion on selling Verizon and buying Apple and Microsoft with the proceeds. Also what is the cost to buy and sell a stock with a full brokerage company

Q: I am thinking of buying apple and microsoft.
Is this a good time?

Q: What are your thoughts on MSFT, specifically their cloud computing sector of their business? I would assume that in the long run, eventually every company will be operating on the cloud. Seems like it's AMZN, MSFT and GOOG as the big 3. Does anything have a competitive advantage in this space at this time?
Thanks for all your great insights.
Marc

Q: Would you be able to provide a grading for the following stocks as you currently have for CND companies in the Report section? Would appreciate your thoughts, +A through E for the selected companies.

Any chance you’ll be adding US companies to the Reports one day?

Thanks

Nick

Q: Hello Peter

I sold recently almost 50% of my US stocks:ADBE,AMZN,TEAM,NFLX,MA & MSFT from my unregstr. acct. and I do not want to keep cash and I do not want to buy US stocks.

Please provide me with idea of 5 Canadian stocks that are reasonably safe and be kept for 2 to 3 years, or 2 Canadian stocks very safe with little growth.

Q: Can you please list 10-20 conservative high dividend paying companies that you would recommend. US or Cdn. Thank you.

Q: Hello, a great service and learning lots from the Q&A. I have a small Canadian portfolio with MG, OTEX, CNQ, BIP.UN and MFC. And also DIS from US side. I am looking to charge it up with some growth performers over the next 5 years. How do these holdings rate and any suggestions on additions? Would you replace any of these?

Thanks for the feedback. Have a great day.