Investment Q&A

Q: Hi there, I am looking to pick up a few positions. I am underweight in consumer cyclical, real estate, financials, energy, and US. I have no holding outside N.America. My investment profile is Balanced to growth-oriented.
I currently own the following in those categories:
ATZ, BRP, CELPH. COST, LULU, MG, PLC, TSU, X, RY, SLF
What stocks would you buy today?

As a side note, Is there a publication or investment service you would recommend, for US and international holdings?
Thanks for your advice.

Q: Good day 5i Team, What's up with OSFI? The Canadian banks have been quite conservative during the pandemic but OSFI won't release them to give investors the dividend increase? They were heralded as the world's safest banks during the Great Financial Crisis, but somehow they will be last to increase dividends this time?. Even the banks in the EU and UK are released from holding additional funds. Do you have any good conspiracy theories? Keep up the great work and appreciate all you do for the little guys.

Q: My 28yr old son is looking to build a diversified ETF portfolio with 100% equity exposure with a bent towards growth given his long investment horizon.  These will be spread across his TFSA, RRSP and Non-Registered accounts.  Since he will be contributing smaller amounts on a regular basis a zero commission platform such as Wealthsimple is appealing.  However, they charge 1.5% fee for all currency conversions making it only practical to hold Canadian traded ETF's.  As a result he is considering the following:

ZSP 40%
XIC 25%
TEC 20%
VIU 10%
VEE 5%

ZSP + XIC + VIU + VEE together create a mix of ETFs that are globally diversified and very similar to the structure of XEQT/VEQT.  Versus XEQT/VEQT This portfolio has a slightly lower weighted-average MER at 0.16% and also has 20% in TEC (in place of something like QQQ) which is more growth oriented. Here are how the sectors would be weighted with this portfolio:

Info 31%
Financial 15%
Cons Disc 11%
Industrial 9%
Healthcare 8%
Communica 7%
Cons Staples 5%
Energy 5%
Materials 4%
Utilities 2%
Real Estate 2%

These would be the top 10 holdings with this portfolio and these top 10 would account for 24% of holdings in this portfolio:

AAPL5.1% MSFT4.9% AMZN3.2% GOOGL1.8% FB1.7% GOOG1.7% TSLA1.5% SHOP1.4% RY1.2% NVDA1.2%

If this was you at 28, can you please comment on
- are the 5 ETFs he has chosen ones you would go with given his objectives, if not, what changes/substitutes would you make along with recommended % allocations?
- is his % allocation across the 5 appropriate or would you make changes? For example I thought there might be too much overlap between ZSP and TEC as they are both highly invested in AAPL, MSFT, AMZ and FB and he is looking at 60% going into these 2 ETF's. That may well be what you want at his age but  I wonder if he is better served by reducing ZSP to 25% -30% and TEC to 15% and add  the remaining 15-20% to CDZ or VGG (or something else?)
- given he will be making contributions to his TFSA, RRSP and Non-registered, which ETF would be best in which account and why? 

Thanks for all your help, 
Scott

Q: With all the speculation about major dividend increases once restrictions are lifted, would investment in banks be a good short term strategy (hoping for a boost upon announcements), or has the expectation already been cooked into current prices? Any guesses as to who will announce the largest increase?

Q: I wd appreciate your ranking of the Canadian banks.
thank you

Q: Canadian banks.

Is there ever a downside to deciding to place capital into Canadian Banks?

As a percentage of a total portfolio, to what maximum would you be comfortable in holding several Canadian Banks?

Q: With the American banks having strong earnings, do you see the same for Canadian banks when they report. Which banks do you prefer.

Q: Hello Peter,
For additional monies for a balanced approach, i was thinking of putting new monies into Nuvei (instead of Shopify), and rest into one of the banks. I already have Topicus. Does this make sense and if so, which bank would be best at current valuation? Fobi AI has had good news releases, yet stock tumbles. Any comments.. Thanks very much.

Q: I am consolidating some holdings in my RRSP. I am thinking of selling 2 holdings to buy the other that has the most potential growth in the next 5-10 years. Which one of these 3 do you think has the most potential growth in the next 5-10 years? I am 35 years old so I am in no rush to use the money.

Q: How the new world-wide trend of BNPL could affect the banking system.
Thank-you
Dan

Q: Can you give me a list of 5 Canadian and 5 US stocks that you would recommend with yields above 3%.

Q: Which of the two banks offers a better opportunity for growth? Already have a full position in TD.
Thank you for all that you have done to help with my financial education.

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor who normally holds for the long term. I own a half position in Manulife and am down roughly 7%, including dividends. My long term plan was to sell MFC and rebuy a second Canadian Bank (I already have a full position in Royal Bank).

I have compared the various metrics (P/BV, P/CF, P/S, ROE, technicals, analysts estimates, etc.) for the above mentioned banks as well as against MFC.

Looking at the banks in isolation and already with a full position in RY, I've narrowed it down to either BNS (International exposure and current laggard due to Covid) or TD (more US exposure and 1 year laggard). Of the banks that I do not own, please rank them in order of the best total return over a sufficient period of time for Covid to have subsided (1-2 more years for improved vaccination coverage?). Do you agree with my rationale?

If you include MFC into the bank comparisons, where would you place MFC in the rankings? I have read to buy the banks when their P/E is < 11.0 and buy the insurance companies when their P/BV < 1.0. This would lead me to buy TD (P/E of 9.7) or keep MFC (P/BV of 1.0).

So...keep MFC versus take the loss in MFC and then buy BNS or TD? Your thoughts?

MFC is held in a taxable account and I have no problem taking a loss.

Thanks for your help....Steve

Q: I know that ranking banks often is like picking shades of the same colour. At this point in time do you feel there is any "clear" division amongst any of the banks for investing purposes? Can you give your order of preference and the magnitude of the gap between each choice.
Thanks,
Terry

Q: Following Trudeau's announcement of a tax grab on Canadian Banks, the Royal Bank fell the least amount by a decent margin. Do you have any insight as to why, or is it simply because the Royal is the biggest?

Q: I am going into retirement and below are the weightings of stocks held in my portfolio. Although the portfolio performed okay over the years, I wonder if there is too much concentration and would appreciate your ideas on diversification given the economic times we live in. My portfolio is about $2M with an investment loan of $150K for which I use the dividends to repay. Thanks. BNS 37%, TD 18%, CM 14%, BMO 14%, BCE 6%, SRN.UN 6%, RY 4%, POW 1%

Q: I hold the Canadian banks in my dividend portfolio and they have served me well over the years as a core hold.
Should I reconsider these holdings in light of new taxation rules being suggested?

Q: I would like to add a few (2-4) financial companies to my non-registered investment portfolio. Would appreciate 5i's help in ranking the above names based on total return potential for a 3-5 year hold. Please add any names you feel belong to the lineup, ranked appropriately, Thank you.

Q: Would like to create a 10-15 stock portfolio out the securities listed above, to meet my retirement income and growth needs, for a long term hold.
CPD is my current, imperfect proxy for the fixed income portion of my portfolio.
CVE, CNQ, SU would be the only opportunistic (and highly correlated) purchases, to take advantage of the current low valuations for the petroleum industry. These would be sold if the oil & gas market's prospects change.
Please rank all the securities on the basis of return potential over 2-3 years as the primary criteria,
Please eliminate any stock which does not have adequate balance sheet strength, from the lineup.
Please add to the lineup all securites that would facilitate the creation of a defensible, well-diversified, long term portfolio - especially if it is in a sector that I have overlooked.

Thank you for your expertise, and willingness to help me sleep a bit more soundly.

Q: Hello. I continue to see positive comments from 5i about growth potential for GSY. I would like to add it my financial sector but that would require selling one of my current financial stocks in order to maintain the assigned weight. Of the stocks listed can you put in order the stocks you might sell to a\quire GSY. Alternatively, does it make sense to keep the current stocks, which are all doing well and for the most part paying dividends and just add GSY, changing the weightng of the portfolio?