Investment Q&A

Q: The rich get richer, which is why David Thomson is increasing his stake in TRI without lifting a finger, just like Buffet. The weekend Financial Post covered the controversial area of why companies love to do stock buybacks and why it is not really in shareholders' interests. The above stocks were mentioned for Canada.

I'd be interested in knowing which 5i portfolio companies are most active in buybacks and which take no part among all the portfolios.

Q: With the world feeling a little uneasy about a pending recession, I want to keep only holdings that will weather a downturn. I'm not trying to time the market, and want to hold stocks, that while they may dip, have good balance sheets, good management, and will likely see a recovery. Others I will sell and hold the cash. Above are my current holdings. Do you see any that may be susceptible to excessive weakness in a recession and would therefore meet my sell criterion? Thanks,
Kim

Q: Gentlemen, good morning would you buy canadian bank today? Which one and why? Thanks. Alnoor

Q: I am currently overweight the financial sector. I am concerned about the trend to negative interest and the risk of a recession. The odds of market declines are increasing in my opinion.
Protection of capital is more important than income.
We are not supposed to time the market.
Should I put this group in cash ?
The group will be hurt by negative interest rates or am I wrong on this.

Q: Hi,

I am looking to reduce my exposure to financials across my family's portfolio, from 23% to 13%. Sunlife (3.03%), Royal Bank (3.41%) and TD Bank (5.55%) comprise our most significant holdings, all of which we have held for many years. I am looking to reduce and reallocate one of those positions as part of the overall reduction. Which in your judgement would be the best candidate to let go?

Finally, and I apologize if this question has been asked and answered before: is there any drill-down facility planned in the 5i Portfolio Analysis features that would list all holdings in a particular asset class, geographic sector, and/or industry? Or does the facility exist and I am missing it? For example, it would be helpful to have the portfolio analytics tool to be able to list the holdings that it is including in its calculation of the portfolio “financials” weighting.

Thanks
Derek

Q: Hi,

Looking for three names for a long term hold. Can you pick your best three choices for some growth, some income and not too volatile?

Q: I own the Canadian bank stocks listed above with BNS, RY and TD each having a 6% weighting and NA 3.5% and BMO about 2%. Overall my Canadian bank weighting is over 20% of my portfolio, mostly a result of inheriting my father's income portfolio. I want to trim my overall weighting, which bank(s) would you trim.

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, I currently have $11,500 to add to my TFSA with a long term horizon. I currently hold CNR (2.53%), NTR (2.88%), PLC (5.04%) PPL (2.98%), TD (4.21%), V (4.71), WCN (6.15%), XLV (3.31%) MAW 104 (25.11%). I am wondering if I should add to the current companies or might you have any other suggestions?

Q: HI,

I have about a 15% position of TRP in
my RRSP and was thinking of selling and replacing with a non-energy related equivalent dividend stock. I also have large positions of GSY, TD, SHOP, ENB, BNS, AAPL, GOOGL, SPY, V, JPM so would not add to these.

What would you recommend? Thank you.

Q: I have had a held Bank of Nova Scotia for several years. Also held Toronto Dominion for shorter time. , Small holdings in each stock, about 1% in each. Should I sell BNS and replace with TD., or sell BNS and add to TD. Looks like 5 year return on BNS is -1.14%. Looking forward to your comments, thanks

Q: I currently owned both CM , TD and ZBK in a non rrsp account. I would like to sell CM. My total % holding in ZBK and TD are quite low . If I buy ZBK I still maintain the financial allocation but increase my US holding. I know I would lose the dividend that CM pay as ZBK is quite low, or would it be better to buy more TD and increase the weight of this stock.

Thanks

Q: Hi Peter and Team,
I have held a position on BNS, RBC and TD for about 5 years now. Seeing that BNS has been under performing relative to RBC and TD over the last year and a bit, I was thinking of liquidating my position on BNS and put the proceeds into RBC and TD equally. Just wondering what your thoughts are on this.
Cheers,

Q: I am looking to add a Canadian Bank to my income portfolio for a long term hold. Which bank do you recommend for total gains

Q: Hello 5i,
Like many here, I have , according to the portfolio analytics program, far too much in Canadian and far too little in the rest of the world. I am trying to remedy this but I am finding reducing Canadian holdings a bit difficult. I know that you like to see each holding equaling five percent. Although, I guess you qualify this when you say that you are testing the waters on some stocks, then you go at about two and half percent.

I am wondering whether one might consider very similar companies, such as BNS and TD or CP and Cn, almost as one stock? That is, rather than hold five percent in each as maximum, hold 2.5 percent in each as maximum, allowing the two to equal five percent? thanks

Q: I plan to reduce my Financial Services exposure. I would like your opinion on whether I should sell BNS or TD or half of each (all things being equal, my preference would be to reduce the number of holdings by one).

Q: 3:44 PM 5/8/2019
I really apreciated the TSX60 list with US revenue percent for each company. I do however have some questions. Several of the numbers were a surprise.

1. We are told that TD Bank is 50% or more American with a branch on almost every corner in many large US cities but your list shows only 26% of revenue is derived from the US. Can you confirm this number as it makes a big difference to my investing decision.

2. I see Emera has 70% of income from the US which seems a little high to me as I understood that Emera was about evenly balanced between Canada and the US.

3. Fortis with huge investments in ITC in Michigan and 6 adjacent states [the largest independent electricity transmission company in the United States], in Central Hudson Gas and Electric and in UNS in Arizona shows just 9% US income. Surely this figure is sadly out of date.

Can we trust the rest of the figures in the list?

Thank you.............. Paul K

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 am just starting to invest into my TFSA and will not need the assets for at least 7 to 10 years. I would like growth and can say I am a moderate risk taker. I have small positions in the four stocks and I was also contemplating a position in BCE. Would you be able to suggest at least four other stocks or etf's to diversity my account.

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?