Investment Q&A

Q: Please confirm as I could be misremembering: stock market drifting lower is not good for insurance companies. Please provide some context if I am correct. Which insurance company would be less impacted ?

Q: My financial holdings are TD, BNS, BMO, MFC and SLF. With the recent surge in the banks I am looking to rebalance back to a 50/50 split between banks and insurance companies. If you were to add a third insurance company, which would it be? Or should I add a non-bank/insurance company like BAM or X which is still classified as financial? I am only interested in large cap, dividend-paying stocks.

Q: Building TFSA for my 25 year old daughter. I now want to add an insurer. Which would you most recommend today based on valuation, momentum, and growth, while also considering the benefits of the companies with decent dividends.
Thank you!

Q: I hold SLF and MFC for income and a little growth. Do you see the need to also own POW for the same mandate? Can you help explain the significant outperformance with POW this last year compared to SLF and MFC?

Q: Hello,

I currently hold a position in IFC and it has performed well. I'm considering increasing my investment, but with the recent pullback in SLF, it’s also presenting an attractive opportunity.

Would you recommend adding to my IFC position, selling my full IFC position to invest in SLF, or maintaining my IFC holdings and initiating a new position in SLF with fresh capital?

Thanks in advance!

Q: Could you comment on Sunlife’s alternative assets business’ contribution to overall results and future return potential?
Hugh

Q: SLF--Buyable today and good entry price.Do U favour Slf over MFC , and what are the reasons? Txs for u usual great services & views

Q: I have some money to invest. Could you please let me know, in order of best stocks to buy.

Q: For the last 10 years, SLF has been the better stock to own. Since December 2023, MFC has been better. In their most recent earnings MFC beat and SLF missed. MFC's PE is a little higher, dividends are about the same, SLF has better ROE, MFC has a much better profit margin. If buying one of them today, which do you think is better going forward? Or with the chance interest rates will be coming down in the next year would it be better to buy a bank instead?

Q: Hi,
I need to sell all the stocks in my non-registered account to access the cash in the next 2-5 years. I will be selling many of the stocks listed, in the next few weeks. Can you list them in SELL order with a few comments on the rationale.
Also, please list the top 10 Canadian stocks (from this list or others) for longterm holding, since I will buy some of them back in one of my registered accounts (RRSP, TFSA), likely over the next 2 years.
Thank you,
Camille

Q: I get confused when you rated slf over ifc for a 5 year hold, I agree it has a higher dividend, but you say slf will have better growth. Is not return on investment the growth that i should be measuring. ifc has blown slf out of the park in the last 10 years, not even close and they are still doing it right now.

Q: These are my current holdings and I am looking forward to 2023. They are held in relatively the same quantities in 5 different accounts, a RRIF, 2 TFSA's and 2 Non registered accounts. I am retired an enjoy the income. Do you see any issues with these holdings or have any suggestions looking forward. The only non dividend holding is AR.
Take any extra credits as necessary. Thank you in advance. Enjoy and appreciate 5i'S help. Happy New Year.

Q: I own small percentages of each of these in an unregistered account, I have $23,000. and I would like to add to some of them, which one would you suggest. Thanks for your help over the years, I read the questions so rarely ask one myself. Thanks Dorothy

Q: I have learned that Sun Life has lost its contract to provide health insurance coverage to the Federal Government (it is being replaced by Canada Life Assurance a subsidiary of Great-West). Do you think this will be material to Sun Life stock price?

Q: I would like to add a few (2-4) financial companies to my non-registered investment portfolio. Would appreciate 5i's help in ranking the above names based on total return potential for a 3-5 year hold. Please add any names you feel belong to the lineup, ranked appropriately, Thank you.

Q: Hello,
I wish to bring up some percentage allocation in one or two of the above companies from the balanced portfolio and was wondering how you would rate them for (1) growth and (2) safety over next, say three years. Thanks for your great service!

Q: I am a retiree with 14% financial sector exposure in banks (TD,BNS,RY) and insurance companies (MFC, SLF, BRK.B). I have been a long term holder (10+) of MFC and currently have a half position. Been happy with the dividend but very disappointed with share appreciation (still underwater). Would it make sense to sell MFC and purchase GSY for share appreciation and dividend growth?

Q: Good morning. I currently have positions with MFC, SLF and GWO but GWO was a recent purchase just to see how it performed against the other two which I have held for many years. Based on some of my research it appears that Sunlife manages better through pullbacks and downturns historically however if I were also looking at Dividend Yields, currently MFC and GWO are higher. However I try to look at:
1. Growth rate ( ie EPS growth);
2. Dividend Yield Growth and;
3. Forward Valuation
as best as possible when I look at a company. I don't want or believe I need all three and would appreciate your input as to how you would rank them based on the three criteria I've noted.
Thanks,
Kevin

Q: The top ten positions in my equity portfolio represent 30% of the portfolio. Among these top ten are TD, BAM, BAC and JPM. The financial sector represents 27.5% of the equity portfolio and the 5i analysis suggests that this be reduced to 15%. I am a new 5i client and don’t disagree with the direction the model is suggesting. Other holdings in the financial sector are: BMO, BNS,CG,C,MFC,PYPL,PNC,RY,SLF,BX,X,V. This is a bit messy but adding to the sector in the spring seemed like and was a good idea but now we need to be more conventional. I may be very wrong but I don’t consider BAM and X as financial services, particularly BAM. Looking at the holdings, what would you unload to bring down the financial sector exposure? Obviously a tax filter will be needed at my end. The question for another day will be an ask for recommendations to increase the under-weighted sectors. Having fun with the model and more importantly find it useful.
David

Q: Hi 5i: I am presently underweight financials ( TD - 6% ). Which of these would you add BNS, SLF or GSY? Would you add a combination of all? What is the market weight for financials and would now be a suitable time to add?

Thank you for my success!

Tom