skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Investment Q&A
You can view 3 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: CRH Medical dropped >28% on Friday. I see they repaid their loan to Crown Capital as planned and have taken out a new credit facility (to 2020), reducing their interest expenses from 12% to 2.5% and providing cheaper capital for a future acquisition (3.5%), http://investors.crhsystem.com/1881-2/.

This would seem to be a big positive - quite apart from the recent re-imbursement issue which doesn't seem to realistically reflect the actual impact of any changes (i.e. is more benign than the market has anticipated).

So why the 28% drop? I got in at $4.47 - your advice, please? I'm tempted to buy more but I am/ should be an income investor (ha!).

Thanks as always,
Heather
Read Answer Asked by Heather on July 17, 2017
Q: TD Waterhouse Action Notes Summary Report dated July 7 2017 about "Questions regarding the sustainability of CRH's reimbursement rates have contributed to a two month slide in CRH's stock."
Here's the meat of it.
" We expect a relatively benign outcome to the 2018 fee schedule, partly because of CRH's limited exposure to CMS funding. Our sensitivity analysis indicates that a 5% cut in the Medicare reimbursement fee could cost CRH ~1% in adjusted EBITDA. ....
CRH has limited exposure to MEDICARE- We expect CRH's operating performance to be largely insulated from CMS for two reasons. First, Medicare only represents 10 to 15 % of CRH's revenues. Second, CRH's dominant payers (the private insurers) employ different reimbursement protocols from Medicare. We estimate that commercial payers reimburse the 00810 code at 3X-4X the rate of government payers.
TD Investment Conclusion
We are maintaining our buy rating but reducing our target price to $10.50 (was $12).
Our rating is based on three considerations: 1) leadership in a defensive, growing segment of the U.S. healthcare services market: 2) high margin cash flow streams and: 3) expansion opportunities within CRH's core anesthesiology market.
Hope this soothes a bit!
Read Answer Asked by Clarence on July 15, 2017
Q: I know that you suggest Sun Life for a Canadian life insurance company, but how would it stack up against the potential of other life insurance companies in the US? Brian Acker recently recommended Met Life saying it was much cheaper than Sun Life. How would you compare Sun Life to US companies? Overall what Life Insurance companies would you invest in regardless of Canada or US?
Read Answer Asked by Kel on July 14, 2017
Q: I hold ENF. I recall that, in the past, you have expressed a preference for ENB - perhaps the former being more for income and the latter being more for growth. Is this correct? Is there any other reason to prefer one over the other? (Perhaps I should consider switching.)
Read Answer Asked by Carl on July 14, 2017
Q: Within the last month I took a half position in CSH.UN, and a quarter position in DR (both in my RRSP). I am down about 6% on both. If you were to add to one of these positions today, which one would you choose, and why? Or just wait as they have negative momentum.

Paul
Read Answer Asked by Paul on July 14, 2017
Q: I invest for dividends, dividend growth and some growth in stock price. I am currently holding ala but am thinking of switching enb or enf. Would you make this switch and if so which Enbridge holding ? I have a diversified portfolio.

Thank you and thanks for providing this great service
Read Answer Asked by James on July 14, 2017
Q: Hi there

Any ideas for the big drop in CRH Medical today.

Much thanks

Stuart
Read Answer Asked by Stuart on July 14, 2017
Looking for more? Sign up for a FREE 14 day trial! No credit card required

We invite you to sign up for a 14 day free trial of 5i Research!
Experience all the benefits and tools we have to offer; stock research, model portfolios, Q&A with our experts, and so much more. Join a community of like-minded investors today!