Investment Q&A

Q: I hold all of the above in roughly equal weight in the income portion of my portfolio. The first three are at roughly breakeven, the latter five are up, two of them over 20%, as economic conditions have weakened. I am wondering why I don't simplify life by selling them all and buying the PDC ETF which provides greater diversification and has a dividend yield of 4.59%. I realize that 25% of PDC is in energy but mostly safer pipelines. Would this be a good move or am I better off to keep what I have?

Q: Hi Peter, can I get your updated analysis on Steve Eisman's thesis on Canadian banks from today's BNN posts? Do you agree? What is it that he's seeing that we're not seeing (besides him flipping by shorts)? Would you be able to write a 5i blog post on how we can value banks (i.e. key ratios, ROA etc). Thanks.

Q: Assuming the RY.PR.H rate reset preferred resets today I have made the following new interest rate calculation;
The new interest rate is the GCAN5YR interest rate plus 2.26%. Today the GCAN5YR is 1.368% so 1.368 plus 2.26 equals 3.628%. This is below the initial 5 year interest rate of 3.9%. I calculate the actual Fixed Rate Calculation Date is August 24, 2019 minus 30 days is July 25 2019, which is only a month & a half away. At that time the GCAN5YR rate will probably be the same as today. Would you please confirm that my new interest rate calculation is correct. Today the RY.PR.H on the TSX is trading at a yield of 5.5%. If my calculations are correct, is the price falling because no one wants to own this preferred when the new lower interest rate is determined. Would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks .. Cal

Q: Hello,
Our financial weighting is still quite a bit higher than you suggest for a portfolio...so my plan is to sell our (underwater) CIX as well as one or two of our (positive) bank stocks. Appreciate your ranking and thoughts regarding our bank holdings noted above. Thank you.

Q: I have all these stocks in my non-registered account, I have some money to deploy. My two smallest holdings are CP and WCN, should I add to either one or would you suggest a new stock?

Q: Good morning,
Wondering if you could please comment as to Steve Eisman's thesis on Canadian banks ( shorting specifically CM, RY and LB) and the deleterious effects of a shift to positive loan loss provisions for the stage 1 loan book( those loans that are current), where such a shift would, in his words, "crush" earnings( growth?).

Thank you for your insights,

Q: Have any of the big 6 Canadian banks ever cut their dividends and if yes can you please provide specifics as to when, by what magnitude.
Many thanks for your service,
Stevr

Q: Hi,

Do you think the US feds recent comments regarding slowing worldwide growth and less rate hikes will affect the Canadian Banks as well? If so what effect?

Q: With the possible exception of BMO, the Big Five banks seem to be hitting a plateau. At the same time, there's talk of moderating interest rates. But shouldn't lower rates be a stimulus for banks' business - mortages, etc.? I thought it was the insurance companies that benefited from higher rates. Or is the apparent tapering-off of banks' growth just a reversion-to-the-mean phenomenon?

Q: I have the above securities, as well as RBC Cdn Equity Inc, Sentry Cdn Inc, Sentry Global REIT, and fixed income via Fisgard Capital, Annuities, a company pension, CPP and soon-to-be OAS.

I really focus on asset allocation and am a little light on Consumer stocks, holding CGX, PBH and TCL (although some consider TCL to be in the Industrial sector). I am normally a buy-and-hold investor who trims-adds around core positions.

Question 1 = I am looking to add 1 more consumer stock and am looking for a dividend ideally > 3%. Based on my stock-ETF-MF mix, are there a few stocks you could suggest that would fit in my above set of securities.

Q2 = if I was to consider ideas from the Income Portfolio, is there an issue with having multiple food stocks....like PBH and A&W and NWC. Why have more than one food stock?

Q# = because A&W is a ".UN" company, how are their dividends treated for tax purposes? Are they eligible for the dividend tax credit?

Deduct as many credits as you deem appropriate....got loads and will never use them all up.

Thanks as always...Steve

Q: I hold the above banks. Which would you hold right now and which might you liquidate, of you needed the finds and why?

Thanks for all your support,
Mark

Q: Hi,
I have approx 10% weight in these in a long term RRSP following your porfolios(Only 1% WN as spin off)
I have about $!0,000 to add. What are your thoughts?
Add to a few laggards or add new?

Q: I have been contributing to my TFSA since inception and I currently have $90,000. I just put in $6000 as my 2019 contribution and I'm wondering what stocks I should look at. I'm 27 years old, have a long term time horizon, and I'm very comfortable with a lot of risk. Looking mainly for growth at this point. I currently have 30% of my account in the following (wxm, iwo, xsu, tdb3055 and RBF1035) (pretty well equal amounts). In addition I hold T, rY, BNS, JE, Enb, dol, ala, cjr, and fts all set up in Drips in roughly equal amounts. I also hold about 10% of my tfsa in ABM, EDT, loto and GQ for risky plays, all of which are down 50% except abm which is up 50%. what do you suggest adding at this point? Thanks so much!

Q: The short and long term performance of Royal Bank has strongly outpaced CIBC. Would it be prudent to sell my CIBC shares and buy Royal Bank with the proceeds?

Q: Hi Peter and team, I'm just starting to look into setting up my RRIF and wanted to ask if 5i could recommend any good reading materials, with respect to what sort of assumptions I should make? Currently my portfolios are producing income which would equate to about the minimum I would consider withdrawing on an annual basis. This will be my only income other than CPP and OAS. Is there any benefit to equalizing my US/CAD exposures when I'm not really planning much travel to US? For example, I could replace my Telus with VZ or my RY with JPM. Thanks again for your great service.

Q: 2:10 PM 1/29/2019
Hi: I am concerned about deteriorating trade relations between Canada and China. Could you please indicate which of the big 6 Canadian banks and big 3 Insurance have business in China and what percent of their entire business is located there.
Thank you.......... Paul K

Q: Can you please rate these four banks in terms of growth and least affected by a downturn.
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Q: Could you advise if buys at the above are good value at current levels - looking to hold 3 to 5 years
Tom Allen

Q: Hi,

I'm looking for two good dividend payers, with some growth, and minimal volatility over the next 2 years. If they perform, I'd prefer to hold them long term. What to do you recommend and why? I already own AQN. If theres a better choice I haven't mentioned, pease do.

Q: I am looking for a sanity check. I am a retired income investor so I like covered calls like BMO's ZW series. However I believe the market is at or near a bottom so owning covered calls ETFs is significantly less appealing than owning the underlying stocks, especially since I can claim some capital losses. So, for example, yesterday I sold ZWB and bought RY. Am I making sense? I do realize I am a bit less diversified and I realize I would need to buy a few companies to replace say ZWC.
Thanks
don