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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: In a recent question asked by Andrew concerning the setting up of a dividend stream of safe and stable Canadian stocks, I was more surprised by some of the stocks you didn't name rather by the stocks you did include - namely bank stocks. The three major banks, for the most part, are paying higher dividends than the ones you included and you have stated in the past you consider them as secure as any. Was the reason for their omission a concern that these dividends are likely to stagnate for a while or is there some other reason(s)?

Appreciate your insight.

Paul F.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on April 21, 2020
Q: Hi. I see in many responses related to Canadian banks that when you reply that you prefer bank a, b, c over bank X, is the a, b, c in order of preference? Sometimes the order changes from different responses.
Would you be able to list the Canadian banks in order of preference for a 5-10 year hold. I understand that in 6 or 12 months the order may change, but I'm looking today what it would be. Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Marco on April 15, 2020
Q: How do you rank these stocks for an investor starting a position in Canadian banks (minimum 5 year horizon)? Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Ben on April 13, 2020
Q: If I am enrolled in a drip, is the stock purchased at a discounted rate or the market price of a stock. I own the listed companies; are any of those are eligible for a discounted drip purchase price? or do you need to buy them directly from the company to qualify for the discount.
Read Answer Asked by Thomas on April 13, 2020
Q: Retired dividend-income investor. I'm sitting on 15% cash that I created by taking profits and harvesting some losses. I have mapped out how to redeploy this cash to hit my asset allocation targets, both by sector as well as by individual holding. I had originally designed the re-entry on spreading the purchases over 6 months. Given that we now have information on different countries indicating that they MIGHT be showing signs of COVID slowly recovering and that the stock market is forward looking, would you adjust the 6 months time frame to 4 months? What's your crystal ball tell you...redeploy a little faster?

Also, the above equities are those that are candidates for topping up. Which would you hit up first?

Thanks for your help...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on April 08, 2020
Q: How would you rank the banks? Strongest to weakest in this environment.
I'm considering selling some far "out of the money" puts to get some income. And if I get assigned, so be it. I'll suffer with a few bank positions yielding close to 8%. Geez, we're talking about bank stocks! I figure if they get into trouble we're ALL in really really BIG trouble.
For example, TD at $40 would yield me 7.9% in dividends. That's like 10.2% in interest. Or RBC at $58 would yield me 7.4% in dividends.
So which Canadian banks would "crack" under pressure and which wouldn't.
Thanks and take care!
Read Answer Asked by Carlo on April 07, 2020
Q: I have just read that the European Banks are going to stop paying dividends and that the US banks are under a lot of pressure to follow suit. Do you think that The Canadian Banks will also suspend dividends?
Read Answer Asked by shirley on March 31, 2020
Q: hi, dear team
i just got some money for longterm investment. how about this list ?
can you tell me at which price i can buy?appreciate!
best regard
Jacky
Read Answer Asked by liang on March 30, 2020
Q: At what point do the banks become a screaming buy? If TD Waterhouse has correct numbers, several are now trading below book value. I have only seen this a couple of ties in my life and it has always worked out okay in the long run. Have I missed anything?
Read Answer Asked by David on March 24, 2020
Q: Hi Peter & 5i,
Thank you for all your professional advice with your years of experience and calmness during this market turmoil.
My question is about bonds.
I have a portion of my fixed income in CBO.
Currently a retail investor can pick up some fixed income bond/debenture from the above mentioned banks with longer term maturities (say 2028 to 2030, they are callable between 2024 and 2026) with a 4% interest rate at current valuations (which are below $100). Even if they did get called then you would get the capital gain and the better interest rate for 4 to 6 years.
Do you think it would make sense to sell a bit of CBO and buy a few of these bank instruments in the current environment?
Your opinion is much appreciated. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on March 23, 2020
Q: I am a buy and hold investor with 5 to 10 years of time horizon.
Have the following 7 stocks in Canadian financials in the order of their weights in our portfolio. Financials makeup roughly 7.5% of the total portfolio including cash positions and we like their dividend. TD, RY, BNS, BMO, SLF, CM, and MFC. I like to reduce exposure to financials and also like to reduce number of different shares. Two questions:
1. Is 7.5% a reasonable weight considering the current situation?
2. Which one of these I should sell to reduce financial weight and to reduce the number of shares in financials?

Read Answer Asked by Naren on March 23, 2020
Q: Good afternoon.

I’m interested in which you prefer (1 and 2) in each category below.

ATD.B, PBH, MRU, L

SLF, TD, BAM.A, TRI

WSP, SIS, CAE

CSU, SHOP, ENGH, KXS

BEP.UN, FTS, AQN

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Alan on March 19, 2020
Q: Hello,

When I look at Canadian stocks traded on the US exchanges, why is there a yield and p/e discrepancy? Even after factoring the exchange, the Canadian stocks on US exchanges look much cheaper. Why is this? And should we be choosing the US exchange due to higher yield and lower pe?
Read Answer Asked by James on March 18, 2020
Q: Which Canadian bank looks most attractive right now?
Read Answer Asked by sean on March 17, 2020
Q: I'm interested in the Canadian banks due to the recent drop and the dividend yield which is very attractive. I have remained in cash for most of this crisis and am anxious to buy. However, I'm very concerned that we are in for further shocks to the economy given the fallout of this virus. How much exposure on the downside do you see to the Canadian banks' balance sheets? I know that if the market goes down, everything will move in tandem but what I'm worried about is that we are in for a high number of failed small and large businesses. Also, I've left my money in US dollars for the last number of years because I think it's a better place to have money and will be buying Canadian banks listed on the USA exchange if that makes any difference. Thank you as always for your comments.
Read Answer Asked by Jason on March 16, 2020