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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: hi,
following up on question/answer on CM recently. you mention CM has a way of getting into trouble eg 1990's. are you saying you see trouble in CM specifically somewhere now? excluding dividend, CM is up 15$ over 10 years( 37%), and over 5 years CM is down 3$ and change(-7%). BNS is up $10 over 10(16%), down 14$ over 5(-16%). at least over these specific time frames, CM "outperformed". depends on timing for sure. but I am curious about your comments? do you have faith in the CM CEO?? is there a wave of loan losses coming??
I own both presently.
cheers, chris
Read Answer Asked by chris on December 14, 2022
Q: The new additions to the growth portfolio appear very conservative. Especially after past picks such as xbc, qst, and mrs. Has the methodology of the growth portfolio changed? Big bounce potential? STN is near ath.
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on December 14, 2022
Q: Hi, I own a number of preferred shares from various Canadian issuers and came across a recent article from Seeking Alpha which is concerning, except below. What is the possibility delisting of preferred shares could occur in Canada as well for the reasons outlined? Thanks.

“Preferred stock can be a useful and important part of a diversified fixed-income portfolio, even with the decline in all segments of fixed income in 2022, however, recent events related to preferred stock delistings have put to the forefront a risk that needs to be taken into stronger consideration by investors. While the matter of delistings is certainly not new, these recent events have heightened our concerns on this risk, and we also call on the SEC to take up the issue to protect investors.

Earlier this month Höegh LNG Partners LP (HMLP) announced that it will delist its 8.75% Series A Cumulative Preferred Stock units (HMLP.PA), effective January 2, 2023, to save legal, audit, and other reporting costs associated with the preferred stock listing. While the company intends to continue to pay the distribution, the withdrawal and effective loss of liquidity for unitholders is a major negative event that led to a sharp 33% plunge in the price from the low $21 range to $14.25 as of this writing, as seen in the chart below.

HMLP-A Price Chart 2022

While some may find value in what is now a 15% current yield, the lack of liquidity creates massive uncertainty for unitholders going forward, and it's unclear what investors should do next. HMLP management has affirmed that it does not care about its preferred investors who handed over $176 million in cash to the company in good faith, expecting that the public listing of the preferred stock would remain stable and tradable as expected when initially issued. The proper action would have been to redeem the issue as the parent company Höegh LNG Holdings Ltd. did when it acquired HMLP and paid common shareholders in cash.

The action of delisting preferred issues and disrespecting preferred stock investors is not just a phenomenon of smaller and obscure issuers. The same thing is happening to the preferred issues of PS Business Parks (PSB) Series X, Y, and Z (PSB.PX) (PSB.PY) (PSB.PZ) totaling $755 million of combined face value. PSB has been reliably issuing, paying and redeeming preferred issues since 1999 when its Series A preferred was issued. Series X was issued in 2017 as a solid investment grade issue (rated Baa2) yielding 5.25% - presumably a perfect fit for a long-term, conservative income-focused investor. PSB-PY was also issued in 2017, and PSB-Z in 2019.”
Read Answer Asked by Gary on December 14, 2022
Q: Hi:

Are you able to list a few factors that let Costco trade at P/E of ~37X while TD Bank trades at ~9.5x and pays a superior dividend to Costo? It "feels" like TD is a bargain but obviously day after day someone / some algorithm feels Costco stock provides equally good value.

Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Marilou on December 14, 2022
Q: Other than half a dozen or so major banks (i.e. BNS), there are a number of smaller banks such as Home Equity bank, Fairstone bank, Canadian Western Bank, ... If I want to acquire GIC's with any of these smaller players, should I be concerned? I have visited the CDIC site to see if they are covered and all appears to be fine but there could be other issues I am not aware of. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Walter on December 14, 2022
Q: CM is approaching a 52-week low following disappointing quarterly financial results. On the other hand, it is one of the big six banks with a ~6% dividend that it just increased. All things considered, is CM a bargain that should be picked up for a long term hold? Or, would it be better to buy a slightly better performer like BNS that is also value priced and offers a similar dividend.
Read Answer Asked by Jean on December 14, 2022
Q: Hello 5i team,
I was thinking of selling the rest of my NTR (a bit of CAE) shares to start a position in PBH. This is more to have a non-cyclical position since I currently have none.

In your last report on PBH you state that their dept is Medium/High. How well are they servicing their dept (paying it down or adding to it)?

PBH has also been growing their dividend over the past 5 years, what is the payout ratio for it's dividend? Has the payout ratio increased over the years?

Thank You,
Andrew
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on December 14, 2022
Q: Hi Guys
I have noticed that there has been heavy insider selling on Capstone over the last 12 months, looks like they have collectively sold more than 20 million shares. Shares they could have accumulated around .55cent a few years ago. Insiders now only own around 5%, have we not missed the boat here?
Thanks Gord
Read Answer Asked by Gordon on December 14, 2022