Investment Q&A

Q: I am planning to take some losses as offsets to capital gains from previous years. In some cases, I am considering replacements as well. Please advise of any concerns with, or suggest alternatives to, the following sale (purchase) plan.

Sell HWO, PSI & IPL (buy PPL and AQN - already own ENB, ALA & KEY)

Sell SU & CJ (buy CNQ and PXT - already own ARX). I also have a sizeable loss on VET, but consider that is presently so far below comparables, that I should wait for some recovery – or sell now and move on?

Sell HR.UN (buy another REIT, possibly TCN.UN and/or ERE.UN - already own IIP.UN & NWH.UN).

Sell CHR.

Thanks - Don

Q: Hi,

With Suncor near it’s all time lows, could you please give me three reasons why it is a bad idea to average down on the stock, and theee reasons why this can be considered a bad idea. I have a high risk threshold, and I can afford to wait 3 years.

Thanks a bunch!

Q: The Expert Guests on the TV and satellite Stock Market Shows. Announce with pride, how they have "exited the energy sector". A recent TV Guest, wouldn't touch Suncor @ $15.00, then proceeded to issue the benchmark "buy" on Apple. I was in line at the time, waiting to fill up at a Petro Canada, along side a truck packed Hwy 401.
Energy has taken it hard as of late and for obvious reasons, but how much of Suncor @ $15.00 is real ? How much if any, is that hydrocarbons are for now, out of fashion ?

Q: I am fed up with Suncor as an investment. Been burnt so many times with this company. The yield isn't enough to keep me in the stock. Do you see a recovery? Is it already getting set up for a huge tax loss selling candidate? Any ideas of a better company to replace it with? Thanks. Maybe a renewable?

Q: I would like to have a little fun with this question. Imagine a boxing match between Canadian companies and American companies...each round is represented by a sector so lets say it is a fight gone bad and there are extra rounds covering 11 sectors. Please pick a favourite Canadian Contender and a strong American contender for each round and who wins the round. Example Round 10 Technology Red corner Constellation Software vs Blue corner Microsoft. Won by Microsoft or Constellation Software. The rules...If you wish to give reasons why the round went one way or another, it's your choice. A good clean fight use the criteria of your investment strategies. The point...I am curious if the Canadian Companies stack up and in what areas I should be looking at South of the border. Thank you

Q: Please rate the above for survival and continued Div. payout in the next 5 years, based on cash- flow that well covers the dividend . I am a senior and need income. I have a position in all the above and would like a rating best first. Please insert your suggestions for the above criteria.
thanks
Yossi

Q: What are you thought on Suncor? What are your mediumand long term thought on the industry?

Q: My powder keg is dry waiting for the covid 2nd wave and in my opinion anticipated second market adjustment. The recent jitters made me realize I haven't made my buy plan for my cash...I am pleased with my portfolio and don't have any huge gaps, I am slowly switching from growth to income so am looking more toward your income portfolio for inspiration. In Canada ENB and H looked like good buy options and I already own Suncor so would top up on that as well to a full position. In the USA I am leaning towards P&G and Coke. These complement my current holdings and I feel these additions will do OK in a possible extended covid induced economic slowdown as well as be good long term income holdings.

Any names you wished you had added on the last drop or names you are watching with interest?

Q: Good day, 5i According to my information, Suncor has a -43% payout ratio for their dividend. Is this accurate, and what do you think of the chance of a dividend cut? Thank you in advance.

Q: your thought about SU and the electric culture going forward.

Q: We have 300K which we want to use to build a portfolio of Canadian dividend payers in an open account.
This forms a significant chunk of our semi retirement portfolio. We have growth stocks in registered accounts and also some cash in a HISA.

1. Would you think that 10 companies offers sufficient diversification?
2. Which companies would you recommend? (we are thinking 2 x financials, 2 x telecoms, 2 x utilities, 1 or 2 materials, 1 or 2 energy)
3. Over what time frame would you recommend purchasing these companies? (TD charges me $10 a trade)

Thank-you,
Jim and Sharon

Q: SU had been performing poorly with price back to April levels. Warren Buffett added more of the stock recently and company seems to have a strong balance sheet. How much do you think the stock is undervalued at current levels? And how do you see vaccine news affect its recovery? Thanks a lot.

Q: Pason's current price and cash might look appealing to someone who doesn't have any exposure to oil in their portfolio. What are your thoughts on Pason at this time? Would you prefer a producer like Suncor or something midstream like Enbridge?

Q: I took your recommendation, three weeks ago, to switch to CNQ from SU, as I sold my SU (tax loss harvesting), with the plan to re-buy SU (and sell CNQ) after 30 days. So far, this is working out, as my CNQ position is up 9%, and SU has fallen a bit further, since these trades. With the 30-day period ending in about a week, I am reconsidering things, and would like your input. I am a long-term buy & hold investor, and have always liked SU (essentially created a business out of nothing, that has prospered remarkably over the decades, current headwinds--green opposition, pipeline constraints, demand collapse, etc--notwithstanding). BUT, how would you compare and contrast the LONG-TERM prospects for SU versus CNQ, now that I'm faced with another decision-- should I just keep my CNQ position (with very early "success"), or should I stick with Plan A, and go back to a SU position (overall, we're talking about SU or CNQ being ~1.5% of my portfolio, and oil & gas overall ~3.5% of my equity portfolio, 2/3 Canadian 1/3 foreign). And please provide a rationale for your answer.
Ted

Q: What are your thoughts on making an entry into oil via Suncor and/or Enbridge? The stocks haven't quite rebounded to their pre-covid levels yet. Assuming oil returns to prices of old, do you think they're good buys? Do you prefer one over the other?

Q: Hello team,

Q2 results did not look too good. Can you please comment.

Q: Good Morning,
Can I please have your top 5 oil picks for today?
Thank-you

Q: I have several beat up stocks that are now small holdings so looking to clean up the mess a bit and reduce my holdings to a more reasonable number. These are all in my unregistered accounts so will generate a tax loss although that wont do me much good this year with no likely gains to harvest.... So my general plan was to sell some and consolidate in other holdings I already have: ( use as many credits as required)

Sell HSE ( 1/4 position ) and add to my 1/2 SU . I get the tax loss to carry forward and move from HSE that is mostly heavy oil to SU with less downside.

Sell CHW ( 1/4 position) and add to my 1/2 SJ. These 2 don't really match up well like HSE and SU but the CHW is such a small position, unlikely to move until late in the recovery and with the div suspended I think I am going to take my lumps on it. I am a bit lite on SJ anyways.

Sell my MX ( 1/2 position) and add to my MAL ( 1/2 position). Once again not good matches but these 2 are small position in the same account. MAL hasn't done much in terms of stock movement but has generated a good yield over the many years I have owned it. I am not feeling the love in the energy sector for the next few years and I have a felling that the good old days in oil and gas might be at an end with the cost of solar improving and the steady growth in electrifying transportation....

And last sell 1/2 position of AD and buy ALA ( 1/2 position). Once again not a great fit in terms of sector but yields are comparable and ALA is essentially a utility ( and not a oil and gas) so should be a somewhat stable yield.

I wish I had a few big winner I wanted to sell to harvest the tax losses now but will just need to put them in my pocket for the big recovery in a hopefully not to distant future... These moves reduce my small holdings, Get rid of some holding you don't have in your portfolios, de-risk my portfolio somewhat and finally move that money into companies a bit better placed to maintain their dividends during covid/post covid

Q: Apologize for the newbie question. When I look at Suncor's price chart, in my head something is telling me that it will double in one year? Why is not everyone buying it right now? It looks like a steal price and I'm even thinking about putting half of all my money into it. Please stop me if it's a crazy idea. Or if you have better stocks to recommend it would be wonderful. Currently I have 15% AC, 9% BAM.A, 7% KXS, 3% LSPD, 3% WELL. Thank you!

Q: Hi 5i team,
I’ve recently sold some of my SHOP position in a taxable account (the share price has risen ~15-fold since purchase about 2-1/2 years ago, and even after this partial disposition, SHOP remains my biggest overall position—thank you for this excellent recommendation!). Now, I want to reduce the tax hit, and so I am planning to sell positions in BMO, BNS, and SU, with aim to rebuy after 31 days (to avoid superficial loss), as these 3 securities are core holdings in my portfolio. In general, when I do tax loss selling, I try to maintain an economic position in the types of companies I am selling, because I’m always anxious the shares will rise during the 30-day waiting period (indeed, frustrating increases in stock prices during the 30-day waiting period seem to happen quite often, at least in my experience). So, my question is: Can you recommend a security (or securities) to maintain economic exposure to BMO/BNS, as well as to SU, for the 30-day waiting period? (For perspective, I’m planning to sell ~$185,000 worth of BMO/BNS, as well as ~$72,000 worth of SU; when I rebuy BMO/BNS/SU, I would then sell the temporary holdings I bought to maintain the economic position.). Would you buy a Canadian bank ETF and Canadian oil sector ETF, to maintain these economic positions (and please recommend some appropriate securities), or rather other individual Canadian banks or individual oil companies (and please recommend some appropriate securities)? Also interested in your philosophical thoughts about how to handle the situation of tax loss selling, which arises every so often, especially now during pandemic, when there is wide variety of individual security performance (some big winners, but also some high-quality stocks that are—hopefully temporarily—depressed in price) as well as higher-than-usual volatility.
Ted