Investment Q&A

Q: Hello 5I Team
I see that Mike Newman noted that 50% of MFC's revenue came from the U.S. and Asia. I believe that MFC have made quite a focus on the wealth management business in the U.S. Such things should be fairly positive for MFC should they not, considering the weak loonie.

Thank You
Clarence

Q: I am always looking for better entry points into water related stocks. They generally trade at a premium. MWA recently dropped after earnings. I appreciate any insight you can offer on MWA and, as always, appreciate your efforts.

Q: It took a big fall after the quarterly report this week. I see BMO downgraded the stock around concerns of increased competition. Looks like an interesting valuation with nice dividend yield at current price. My concern is that it's very dependent on one or two drugs so I'm a bit nervous in buying. Thoughts? Thanks

Q: Hello team
I know you have respect for Jason Donville and I do also. Yesterday on BNN he floored a question on DHX media. He seemed to have an issue with the way they dealt with some revenue stream accounting which I don't quite understand. There was nothing dishonest about it but he seemed to feel that the ROE (he likes 20% ROE) and profitability metrics weren't there. He seemed to question the revenue stream from the media inventory.
I know the 5I team likes the stock so what is your balance on what Jason says. Is 20% ROE a stretch in some cases.
It takes two to make a market !
Without Prejudice
Thank You
Clarence

Q: In response to a question on how to download market data directly into Excel, this is what I use:

=NUMBERVALUE(WEBSERVICE("finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=" & A2 & "&f=l1"))

In this case cell A2 contains the symbol I would like the information for (ie ALA.TO for AltaGas). The l1 looks up the last trade price. The website below shows other codes to use to lookup other information.

http://www.jarloo.com/yahoo_finance/

For example =NUMBERVALUE(WEBSERVICE("finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=" & A2 & "&f=j1")) will get the Market cap.

Unfortunately WEBSERVICE is a non-volatile function, meaning it doesn’t re-download the information from the web automatically. To refresh, you need to either

- Hit CTRL+ ALT + F9
- If that doesn’t work for some reason on your computer you must use VBA to refresh at opening (Application.CalculateFull) .

It is a little complicated for some, but is the only good way I have found if you want to stick with Excel and not move to Google Sheets.

Q: just wondering if you have put a call out to those guys yet as promised?

Q: I have already been reducing my financial weighting and doing some rebalancing - and not just because TD decided to take their own sweet time with the dividend! My current Energy sector weighting is 7.7% with the banks...well you know I'm your typical Canadian. I'm thinking on increasing the Energy weighting to roughly 10% by adding to existing positions in PEY, VET and a good oil reserve modelling company. Lately when I read the questions I get the sense you are advising against the purchase of energy companies yet rebalancing (selling the overweight to buy the underweight) seems to be a good strategy. I guess I am a little confused - should I delay rebalancing until the Energy sector is less volatile?
Thanks

Q: Peter I have held this stock since I joined your group and has served me well I was however disappointed how far it in rating last year the leadership seems more focused on tv ratigs than the core buissness .I have about a 20% gain in capital on it .My question is would you sell and pick up AW ?
Kind Regards
Stan

Q: Could please advise if you have any insight on Imperus technologies.(lab.v).There are in the hot internet gambling space and the president and board of directors just took part in of financing putting in $500,000.00 and $250,000.00 each.The people they have brought on board have an impressive track record.They also just completed a takeover of a larger private company called Diwip.They seem to be ramping up to get into the mobile space.Looks very promising.
Thank you,

Q: Hello Peter. holding this stock for quite some time (before launch of 5i) and has done very well for me. As such it is now a 9% portfolio weight. As much as I still like it, but getting bit worried from portfolio management point. Do you think it would be prudent to reduce weight say to 5% . Your opinion, please. If you recommend selling some then please advise some 2-3 other choices with a similar characteristics - safety, income and growth. Thanks.

Q: Hi Peter,
I would like to download market data on stocks from a source for analysis. Could you please give me a source for this data preferably in excel format.
Regards
Simon

Q: Hello

What is the dividend yield on DOL? It pays an 8c dividend quarterly and current market price is about $60.

As per TMX money the yield is around 1.05% http://web.tmxmoney.com/quote.php?qm_symbol=DOL:TSX

I come up with a different number when I calculate it:
($0.08x4)/$60 = 0.53% dividend yield.

What am I missing?

Thank you

Q: Hello 5i team,
In North America, a large number of companies release their quarterly earnings report after the close of the stock markets (TSX, S&P 500, Dow Jones, etc.). How is it that, immediately after the numbers are released, the shares of these companies start trading up or down depending on whether or not they beat expectations? Who is buying/selling these shares and on which stock markets? Is there any way that I, as a retail investor, can buy some at that time in order to get in before the opening of the North American markets the following morning?
Robert

Q: Peter, your thoughts on the earnings? Thank you.

Q: Prem launched a new India fund. What do you think?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/prem-watsa-embraces-his-roots-with-fairfax-india-fund/article21804445/

https://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=fih-u.to

Q: Thanks for your reply to my question on Elkwater. Did you mean Elkwater is (not) planning much spending in the first quarter?
Thanks.

Q: Peter; Re GS earnings today- was it a big miss or expected by the street? Could you comment please. Thanks.Rod

Q: I have been waiting patiently for the carfinco deal to close and I am wondering if it is worth waiting or if I should move on to another holding that may offer more than the approximately 5.5% upside to the closing price of $11.25? What about the special dividend that has been mentioned? I have been considering a position in CXI as an alternative. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks
John

Q: You answered a question a couple of weeks ago stating that this was a good defensive stock. Is there still growth in it? I am kicking myself as I lost patience with it a year ago and sold - missing out on a 25% or so gain. Lesson learned. good entry point?

Paul F.

Q: Boston Pizza has done okay during the year that I have owned it, largely because of the dividend but I am wondering if a switch to MTY is in order. I like dividends and Boston's is certainly higher but MTY seems to be growing theirs and at the end of the day, I am looking for one that will achieve the higher overall return over the next few years. Is a switch in order?

I also own A & W and am very happy to keep it if you think that is a good combination with one of the others.

Thanks. Invaluable service.

Paul F