Investment Q&A

Q: I need to add US and International Exposure to my locked in account. It is currently 60% cdn equity and 40% bonds and gics. I want to have fixed income remain at 40%. I want to reduce Canadian equity to 40% and add 12% US Equity and 8% other international equity.
1 Would ishares Core S&P Index (XSP) and ishares MCSI EAFE (XIN) index be appropriate?

2 Both are hedged to the Canadian $. Is that the best way to go? If the Canadian $ strengthens by 10% what effect can I expect to see?

3 Should I make this change in equal purchases of 1/3 of each index over 12 months?

Thanks for your help and great service

Q: For your Model Portfolios do you reinvest dividends or let them sit as cash and then redeploy at a later date?

Q: What is your opinion about northwest Pipe (NWPX )?What are other pipe line companies that are maker of pipes for TRANscanada or ,ENBRIDGE and other pipelines?Are these companies are good investment ?Your opinion appreciated Thank you.ebrahim

Q: Hi 5i: In past you have expressed a favorable view on Ship Finance (SFL). Yesterday they announced that a proposal for a capital reorganization failed to get enough votes at the company’s general meeting and was defeated. The stock has been falling very recently (with the market) and is down again today (Tuesday) on above average volume. Can you please comment on the capital reorganization proposal, the recent trading activity, and update your view on the company. Thanks!

Q: Team - with the recent pullback, COS, FRU and BTE are looking interesting to add to a portfolio for both income and perhaps over the mid to long term some capital appreciation also. Do you agree with this observation? Would you consider buying now or wait a little longer to see if they continue to drop? Many thanks in advance.

Q: Is it a good opportunity to buy Surge for a 12 yr olds Resp ? For a seniors Tfsa ? Thank you

Q: Freehold (FRU) and CDN Oilsands (COS) are both down quite a lot from their highs and both pay a decent dividend. What would your preference be wrt safety of dividend and growth? Thanks.

Q: Hello Team
Well done Peter great cause and a great achievement.
Please share your thoughts on AG Junction AJX I've held 8 moths is there a possible hope here? Off about 40%, cut my losses or hang in there. Thanks for the support, looking forward to your portfolio review service. Sign me up.

Q: I haveno health care exposure and was thinking of adding Pfizer and Gilead Science to the US side of my portfolio.what are your thoughts on this? Also I bought BAD, ACQ and LNR when they were very high recently and am down about 30 percent in them. Would this be an opportunity to double down or do I just wait them out? It was bad timing on my part and am wondering if there is a way I can fix my mistake.

Q: ACQ.Comment on Q by Vinod on 9/23.Carmax,KMX(US$10.5b market cap) reported record Q2 results morning,9/23,but price dropped 9.49%.It operates in 2 segments-auto sales & auto finance(including sub prime loans)

Q: can i have your opinon on bte for growth debt & dividend sustainabilty share price

Q: Hello 5i team,
I would appreciate your opinion on Catamaran CCT, Concordia CXR and Cipher DND. I own the first two (but I'm not married to them)and am watching the third; how would you rank them?
Thanks,
Tony

Q: My TFSA makes up a tiny portion of my overall portfolio and I have maxed my contributions to date. I have to sell about 1/2 of the portfolio within the next few weeks to pay for a wedding (life can get in the way of long term investing!).

However, I am stuck on what to sell. I hold AVO, AYA, BDI, CGI. DHX, CF, ESL, STN in a fairly balanced portfolio. I am trying to determine a strategy of what is best to sell. I am comfortable with all of them, long term. Do I sell 50% of each (even the couple I am down on), are there some that you expect to grow a lot sooner than the others (it will take a couple of years to probably replace the withdrawals), is CF anticipated to declare a special dividend, etc?

Any assistance as to how to orient my thinking would be appreciated.

As a caution to others, I should add that I did trim a bit earlier but I became complacent with the high valuations and didn't prepare for this September drop in the markets.

Appreciate your assistance and I hope you are transitioning well from all your riding. I did the Ride to Conquer Cancer and it took me a few days to slow myself down!

Paul F.

Q: I recently added both PLZ.UN and DIR.UN to my portfolio and both are in the red since. I noticed the REIT sector seems to be hard hit of late as well. Can you comment on the recent REIT slow down as well as the prospect of both these companies?

Thanks.

Q: CRE.tsx your thoughts oh great one!

Q: Veresen (VSN)

Hi Team,

I am following up on my earlier question regarding Veresen's payout ratio as reported on CIBC Investor's Edge. You have suggested that the dividend payout to cash flow is more meaningful than dividend payout to income. Does it follow then that price/cash flow (P/CF = 23.10x TTM) is generally a better metric than price/earnings (P/E = 50.99x TTM)? If so, would this typically be the case or would it depend on the sector?

Thank you again for your advice.

Michael

Q: Hello Peter and co.
Your rational thought process and in-depth stock analyses have helped me be disciplined and cool headed; thanks a lot.
Sensing that some kind of correction would soon happen, I raised, at the end of August the cash level of my RRIF portfolio to 15%; half of it was earmarked for the income I will withdraw in January 2015 (I'm early perhaps, but I sleep better) and the other half was to nibble at stocks that I already own but in need to be topped up. So far so good because my total return to date in 2014 is 13% while my annual objective was 7%.
I take the opportunity to thank those who have responded to my search for a website that would help me track my various portfolios and watch lists; I decided to stick to the free version of Globe Investor + my own excel spreadsheets.
Cheers,
Tony

Q: Hi it's been awhile since a question has been asked about Africa oil (AOI), any thoughts? Looks way oversold here.
Thank-you.

Q: I was wondering about your opinion on SJR.B shaw cable
Regards
Brian

Q: Hi 5i: Just a comment related to recent questions about the relative merits of various Canadian banks. I have often heard the view expressed that 'the banks all run together,' implying that it doesn’t matter too much which one an investor selects to own. I have also heard suggested the strategy of ‘buying the laggard,’ on the theory that in time it will catch up to the group and thus provide a better return over that timeframe. Recently I took the time to put the big five Cdn banks on the same chart to compare their stock performance over a variety of time periods. I was a bit surprised by the results. Instead of converging over the longer time periods, their performance actually diverges significantly, though all provided fairly decent positive returns. The specific results (as of a couple of weeks ago) included the following:
1. Best over the past 3 months: BMO

2. Best over the past 6 months: BMO

3. Best over the past 1 year: CM

4. Best over the past 3 years: RY

5. Best over the past 5 years: TD

6. Best over the past 10 years: RY

The difference over the 10 year period was quite significant. RY’s price appreciation was the leader at over 160%, followed pretty closely by TD at about 150%. BNS was in the middle of the pack at almost 100% and BMO and CM were both under 60% appreciation. Adding the dividends into the mix might close the gap slightly from a total return perspective but the laggards would still be well behind the leaders over the 10 year time frame. (All presuming the charting function I was using was getting correct data and working properly.) Cheers!