Investment Q&A

Q: Hello: I want to add an insurer stock in Canada and the USA. I admire and follow FAST Graphs. The following companies were recently reviewed: Aflac (AFL), MetLife (MET), Principal Financial Group (PFG), Prudential Financial (PRU), Great-West Life (GWO) iA Financial (IAG), ManuLife Financial (MFC), Power Corporation of Canada (POW), Sun Life Financial (SLF).

I would like your recommendations for the best choice in each country: Objective: solid, safe, long-term hold with capital appreciation potential and good consistent dividend income and dividend growth. Thank you.

Q: Please rank the following in terms of your preference for a new buy now in a dividend focused portfolio: MFC, SLF, IFC, POW, PRU

Q: What's your current view on Prudential given the potential for raising rates? Do you have a preferred US financial institution in a rising interest rate environment?

Q: I was way overweight tech and now have some cash to play with.
Looking to grind out some profits while waiting.
Would like your opinion specifically on these two, but would also like any other ideas or trends you see right now.

Q: Please provide your top 10 ranked Canadian and US stock that are dividend aristocrats (at least 5 years of increases annually to their dividend or distribution) in the order you would purchase them.

Q: I have been "trolling" for financially stable dividend payers in the insurance business to find quite a disparity in the perception of value for various firms. While Sun life seems to be the pre-emptive "favourite", can you recommend other insurers of similar quality whether from this list or elsewhere? Stable income is the main attraction but some inflation resistant growth would be a valuable plus.

Q: Firstly, thank you for your outstanding guidance.
The first 3 stocks haven’t bounced back yet and are still quite a bit down. My question is -would it be better to try and recover $ in the Growth stocks listed below the 3 or reinvest with A&W, BMO, PRU and wait it out for another year.
I have positions in the growth stocks that could be deeper in BNS, Telus, Enbridge, TCP, Kinaxis, Qualcomm. And if you suggest that the growth stocks make more sense to recoup money faster, could you rank these from strongest to weakest-(Potential for growth). Thank you.
Bruce

Q: Can you give me your opinion on this company and if it’s a buy right now please?

Q: Sir, I find myself down 25-60 % in ALL of the above companies. In keeping with your BUY MORE, HOLD, SELL SOME or all, I would appreciate your thoughts on the above companies. I have some capital gains to off set so all is not lost- yet. Thanks- JP

Q: Can I have your thoughts on PRU? Thank-you

Q: I am puzzled by the recent strength, of PRU US. PRU has had ratings upgrades. TipRanks ™ ‘top analysts’ rate is as “Strong Buy”. RBC Cap has it as at outperform. All of the several financial sites I looked up rated PRU as a buy or above. FT of London has made favorable comment on Prudential Group in the past year. (MFC has also been showing signs of life only some of which is attributable to winning litigation this week). It is generally accepted that interest rates in the US and Canada will remain low for more than a year. These LifeCos are holding up well... why? What gives? SLF is doing well, but SLF has non-overlapping operations and has had better strategies than MFC.

Question: would you sell PRU and deploy proceeds elsewhere? Would you expect PRU to appreciate more than dividend plus about 3%, that business prospects for the LifeCos will improve? Although PRU looks great value, its ROE, ROA, ROIC look poor--- but then I see conflicting ratios and metrics… your Bloombergs or service provider would have the deeper stuff of substance that I always want to see before buy/sell decisions.

Q: I am mostly (90%) invested in US markets . (Had desperately wanted to allocate 30% to Canadian , but have done horribly on every Canadian stock I bought ( ENB, GUD, ALA) .Therefore , for next couple of months I have gone back to buying US , when markets dip. To take advantage of the dips , I keep cash reserve. That reserve was reduced somewhat as stocks fainted last week. This is a what-if question about raising cash for next big dip.
Question: I hold both PRu.us and MET.us. Which one (IF ANY) would you sell to add to cash reserve (there being no urgent need). Between PRU and MET if you like one a lot less than the other, your reasoning would be most helpful.

Q: Why has PRU declined so much? Do you think it has much farther to fall? Would you start a position in it today? I’m curious about its prospects, especially in relation to the big US banks. Thanks for your advice.

Q: Could you please recommend 2-3 US insurance companies that you would buy today for long term hold.

Thanks,
Milan

Q: In a previous answer, you wrote:

"SLF cites that a 10% downturn in real estate assets would lead to a $175 million decrease in net income. With operating net income in Q2 of $474 million, while a real estate decline would 'hurt', we do not think it would be a company ending event."

The figure you cite here represents a 37% loss of net income in a 10% downturn. I've heard a number of times that a 40% downturn is possible, or worse, so wouldn't that mean SLF could find itself in very serious trouble? If so, are there any other insurance companies (Canadian & US) that you might recommend as a way of capitalizing on rising rates, which could weather a severe real estate decline more easily? The names I've been considering are POW, MFC in Canada and AIG, MET, PRU, CB of in the USA. Thanks for any thoughts on these or other companies.

Q: In these financial stocks I am currently up on PRU but down 13% with JPM and it looks as if these dollars are probably dead money for the next 6 to 18 months. I would like to reallocate the funds from one of them to the Staples or Industrials sectors. What are your thoughts on this? Which holding should be better to reduce, or sell completely, and would you have a preference for a reallocation at this time? Thanks.

Harvey

Q: Hello, what is your opinion on PRU- Perseus Mining? They are no a producer and seem to have a decent balance sheet. Is this a good buy?

Q: Could I please have your opinion on Perseus Mining (PRU).
Thank You
Garry

Q: Peter, could you comment on PRU? The stock appears to be attractive (strong financial & large gold deposits) but the stock has been flat for the past year+?