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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: Apologies in advance for a long-ish question. A good friend's $800K portfolio is wildly out of whack diversity-wise courtesy of a recently deposed financial advisor who had him 60% in banks. The friend has entrusted me to right the ship. My philosophy, very successful for me, is to be fully invested and widely diversified, almost 100% in Canada (not impossible to do contrary to prevailing wisdom), with an emphasis on dividends and growth at a reasonable price.

I have set the following personalized sector percentages:

Banks - 20%
Other financial - 5%
Telcos - 8%
Utilities/Pipes - 15%
Energy - 14%
REITs - 12%
Healthcare - 6%
Tech - 6%
Consumer Discretionary - 10%
Industrials - 4%

I am trimming his banks from 60% to 20% which frees up funds to purchase. About 1/3 of what he has is worth keeping. For the other 2/3 would love your input on the overall approach, the following choices and the weights:

Telcos: BCE and T, 4% each
Utilities/Pipes: IPL, PPL, BEP, FTS,NPI, 3% each
Financial: FC and MSI, 2.5% each
Healthcare: DR and CRH 2% each
Tech: KXS, NVDA and SYZ 2% each
Consumer (my definition): PBH, RPI.UN, BYD.UN,CGX, ADW.A, 2% each
Industrials: EIF, CHR, NFI, 1.3% each

REITS still need to be worked on and I'm keeping his current energy holdings which are well down, hoping/waiting for a continued bounceback.

Thank you very much
Read Answer Asked by Kim on July 11, 2016
Q: Hello Peter, I am looking for safe investment with dividends, I have ZEF in my portfolio, I would appreciate your help to rate the above, perhaps suggesting a couple better ones. Also, how would future interest rate increases effect their prises.
Many thanks, J.A.P. Burlington
Read Answer Asked by Joseph on July 11, 2016
Q: Based upon your previous comments and my comfort level I maintain a maximum 10% weighting in REITS while participating in their respective DRIPs. At this point I hold CSH.UN. (with a 200% gain), REI.UN (20% gain) and SRU.UN (400% gain). I am contemplating adding CAR.UN and HR.UN. Please comment on whether this particular REIT selection is acceptable and sufficiently diversified or overly concentrated.

Many thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Glen on July 11, 2016
Q: Bond ETF: Of all the questions about bond ETFs, XCB is hardly ever mentioned. XCB is one of my core holdings in the fixed income portion of my portfolio. I now have additional cash for corporate bonds, would you buy XCB as a long term (10 years +) holding? I do not need the income, this is simply a portfolio stabilizer. Would you choose a different bond ETF?
Read Answer Asked by Ronald on July 11, 2016
Q: I have 15% of my well diversified portfolio in Tech stocks. I am thinking of consolidating my 7 stocks into a smaller number of stocks - perhaps down to 5. I have 2%-3% in all the mentioned companies except SYZ at 1%. Any suggestions as to which companies to sell and which ones to "top up" would be appreciated, or maybe just leave as is.
Read Answer Asked by David on July 11, 2016
Q: Sorry for resubmitting the same question again. It seems that I am doing something wrong. Just realized that the name of the Company didn't appear on my last submission, so I am putting the company name and the symbol in the text, (Capstone Mining CSE.PR.A). My original question was sent two days ago, and probably did the same mistake.

I am in dilemma in choosing between the offer to convert series A to a fixed reset for five years at 3.271%, to convert to the floating rate preferred, initial quarterly rate 3.204% or to just take my losses and sell. What would you suggest, how safe is the dividends on this prefered now it is in the hands of the new company that bought Capstone and considering that the rate of return of over 6% based on current price? What would be a good replacement if income requirement isn't important and would rather have some growth and less dividend?

Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Saad on July 11, 2016
Q: Covered call ETFs are gaining popularity. Does the technique have risk that isn't being talked about (yet)? It seems too good to be true. You can buy ZWA which owns 30 awesome mega-caps and has a 5.2% yield. Or, you can buy ZRE which contains companies that max their payout to get you that same yield of 5.2%. The first, ZWA, is not exposed to rising interest rates, or, to the housing mania. In that sense, ZWA seems to be a clear winner for income. But something tells me that as more firms make similar ETFs, something will happen. Won't the increase in put/call writing become crowded and a problem? Maybe fees will increase? Have you come across some writing on the subject? I'd like to investigate before putting 3 years of savings on ZWA. Thanks team.
Read Answer Asked by Matt on July 11, 2016
Q: I have a small position in Mitel and I am looking to hold for 1 to 2 years. They recently backed out of their purchase/merger with Polycom and the market spoke with a significant increase in share price.What are your thoughts and analysis of this company? Could you provide financial metrics,inside ownership, and forward guidance. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Steve on July 11, 2016
Q: Should I continue holding Harmony Gold Mining or take my profit and run? I know that it has more risk the AEG or GLD, but it has a good trend right now.

Should I let it run, or take some profits? You have said before that Gold is insurance, and now that insurance is paying off. When is the right time to cash in, and should profits be put back into gold?

HMY is currently 4.5% of my overall portfolio, and that and Alacer (1%) are my only two gold holdings.
Read Answer Asked by Colin on July 11, 2016
Q: I currently have no exposure to energy or pipelines. I'm trimming some overweight positions and sectors and I'm considering adding a small position in HWO. While I'm interested in total returns, I favour companies that show a profit, pay a dividend and are inclined to increase the dividend - In short, while I'm not an income investor as yet, I certainly prefer a mix of income and growth. At first blush, HWO seems to fit the bill. Your thoughts? Beyond the energy sector in general, are there other risks that concern you about this company? If so, other options?
Read Answer Asked by Gordon on July 11, 2016
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