Investment Q&A

Q: I'm curious as to whether the growth of starlink could have an affect on the telecommunications company's in Canada. Is there potential that Elon could begin a mobile division of starlink to go along with his internet division?

How hard would the barriers to entry be if he did decide to go this route?

Q: BCE is so hated right now, it's trading like it's doomed if the dividend doesn't cut substantially. Dividend is now yielding 11%. Is this the next AQN or do they have a chance to turn things around with divesting TSN, laying off more people, etc? Was the Ziply purchase too high? Is the Air Canada Wifi deal a bad one or even move the needle? Is the Palo Alto partnership also bad? Seems like every news story coming out just drives the price down. I never want to catch a falling knife, but is the story really as bad as it looks right now and could this be a good opportunity to actually get in low with a high yield? Even if they cut it in half it would still be a great yield at this point. Maybe I'm blind, but I'm seeing more upside to this than downside at this point.

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. Sitting on roughly 5-6% cash for topping up existing positions to, over time, hit Asset Allocation targets.

Candidates = BCE, GSY, HHL, HMAX, XST, ZUT. If I was deciding to deploy funds to create the largest total return over the next year or two, from their existing valuation, a) in what order would you deploy the funds and b) a short qualifier for each position?

My view = buy in this order:
ZUT = good momentum, room to run before hitting earlier peak
GSY = good value, $150-155 should be excellent value
XST = graph against 50 and 200mda...very tight chart....could buy anytime
HMAX = good value, banks should run
HHL = healthcare stocks should get over their fear of their new boss in a few months....or not. Give it some time.
BCE = last on the list. Just rebought after cap loss capture. Give it even more time.

Thanks for your help....Steve

Q: I own a long term holding in these stocks but am interested in adding a short term trading position in a few of them to take advantage of any January post tax loss selling bounce. Please rank these from best to worst near term (1-2 month) trading potential.

Q: Good morning,

About a month ago I took a tax-loss sale on BCE. Was a ~ 2% weighting. My 30 day "waiting period" is up this Friday, and now I am undecided as to buy it back, initiate a 2% position in SOBO, or do 1% BCE and 1% SOBO. I know you don't love to comment on portfolio weightings, but if you were me, what would you do?

Thanks as always.

Q: I am down 33% BCE and 18% BEPC in my non registered account. Would you sell both for tax loss purposes ? BEPC is suffering from the general negative in green stocks compounded by Trump but I like the company and would repurchase it while BCE would not be repurchased. Thanks. Derek

Q: Which would you buy today?

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. Long, long term holder of BCE in my wife's cash account. Sold it in mid-Nov, captured a $12k cap loss, and plan to buy it back next week....prior to the ex-dividend date.

I am ok buying it at the roughly $38 level, even if it floats around that level for the short to medium term. I understand that there might even be some further downside risk. I plan to buy around 1400 shares, either in one shot or maybe 2-3 tranches.

Your opinion on which makes more sense in this case? Multiple purchases is the more conservative way to go, but one shot gets the full dividend back (and more) to where we were a month ago. The BCE board has said they would not touch the dividend for now....although their credibility has taken a hit lately. We are ok with "some" volatility. It's almost a "flip a coin" decision.

Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: Every time a company cuts their dividend, the stock suffers.....BCE should be no different and it becomes dead money for awhile..at what support price should I start a new position??...

Q: Three to five year time frame
Stocks to sell and name to replace with growth stock

BCE, NPI, AW.UN BEPC

Q: Hi 5i,

All these questions about BCE and it's dividend has me worried about the other two in the industry. Could you comment on T and RCI's debt load, payout ratios, dividend sustainability, and earning growth rates?

Also, separate/unrelated comment: It would be great to be able to do a search on a company and have BOTH the Canadian and U.S. questions both come back together. It's a bit of a pain to have to do two separate searches and then manually read them in chronological order. Well, it is the season...and I thought I'd just ask... :)

TIA

Q: Hi there yesterday you were answering about buying BCE after a rate cut. You said many are “expecting” it. Are you?

You said awhile back you were not expecting it but has your stance changed?

Might be better to do a Sell for losses now in an unregistered account then wait and buy back after the cut? I’m a long time holder and believer but getting nervous!

Ok thanks

Q: Would you buy bce after a dividend cut?

Q: Yesterday I asked you about a group of stocks with respect to trimming our positions to reduce our overall stock exposure.

Now I would appreciate it if you could categorize these stocks with respect to your opinion on the impact of Trump's election. Perhaps the categories could be: positive, negative, neutral, or not sure.

The stocks are:
BAM
BEP.UN
BIP.UN
BCE
EMA
FTS
NA
RY
SLF
TD

Q: Hello team,
What is the downside risk of BCE from here for the next 1-2 years?
Thanks!

Q: Hi, I’m thinking of selling BCE after December 16 Ex Dividend so I will qualify for January’s payment. I’m at a loss on BCE in my cash account and plan on using this loss in future years to offset capital gains. So as not too lose the dividend income I depend on I plan on buying the same amount of BCE shares in January after waiting the mandatory 30 days. Would appreciate your thoughts on this plan. Also, on a side note do you see more downward pressure on the stock in December due to tax loss selling and ex dividend or do you feel it’s forming a base and has bottomed out in the 37-38 range . Thanks.

Q: My wife and I are mainly dividend investors. We tend to hold our stocks for many years. Due to the significant increase in the value of our stocks this year, we are considering reducing the percentage of some stocks in our portfolio by about 10%.

Could you please give your opinion as to which of the following stocks you would reduce. Would you reduce one or two selected stocks, or perhaps reduce across the board? All of the reductions would be in registered accounts. You can assume the stocks are all about the same percentage of our portfolio.

The stocks are:
BAM
BEP.UN
BIP.UN
BCE
EMA
FTS
NA
RY
SLF
TD

Q: With the Canadian dollar being so cheap and the share price so low, is a buyout of BCE possible? Can Americans buy BCE or does it have to have Canadian ownership? I know the privatization attempt in 2007 failed in part because of the 2008 stock market crash. It could save a huge chunk of cash if it did not have to pay dividends. A company could take it private, clean it up and then take it public again with a much better balance sheet .

Q: Four members of Bell Canada’s board of directors took advantage of the telecom giant’s stock drop to buy shares. CEO Mirko Bibic purchased shares worth just over $200,000, while Louis Vachon, former CEO of National Bank, acquired shares worth nearly $390,000. Calin Rovinescu, former CEO of Air Canada, invested close to $350,000, and Jennifer Tory, a former vice-president at RBC, over $170,000.. They must see future potential gains in the share price since the only reason to buy shares of a company is to make gains.

Q: Since it is very difficult to maintain or increase market share in mobile telephony. Isn’t it a good idea to turn to fiber optic network like with the recent acquisition of Zippy Fiber to maintain a stable source of income and free cash flow?

In your answer dated Nov 19, you write`` it seems to have lost its way a bit, with selling assets to pay down debt and then making a big acquisition. ``

Your view on this would be appreciated.

Thanks

Yves