Investment Q&A

Q: Good morning 5i team,
Richard Croft has mentionned a kind of bond alternative by writing covered calls on a company like BCE. He says BCE works something like bonds in a rising rate environment and so, I suppose, would tend downwards. In writing the covered call for say next January you get the healthy dividend and you have also protection from the downside. Wondering what you thought of this strategy and whether you know of some other Canadian companies with which it would work?

thanks

Q: Good Evening 5i,
I need to add a "communications" company to my dividend fund. I would appreciate it if you could rank T, BCE, RCI.B and SJR.B for me. I'm planning on a 5 year hold and hoping for reasonable/modest annual increases in both the dividend and share price. Would you recommend 1 full position or 2 half positions?
Thanks for your great work as usual.
Dennis

Q: I have BCE and RCI.B. I had thought of dropping Rogers and buying Telus, now Rogers is moving somewhat. Would you recommend I replace one of the two with Telus? Keep the two I have? or invest in all three as I am underweight Telcos?

Thank you for this and all your answers to others

Q: Hi
In my RRSP telecom sector I have Telus and BCE. This sector is currently only 4% of my portfolio. I'm wondering if it is a good time to top up one or both of these to increase this sector?

Thanks!

Q: are there any Canadian companies that are dividend payers and well established, that are not over valued and would be considered a bargain currently? thanks.

Q: I need to convert my RRSP to a RRIF by Dec 31. The portfolio is all GIC and bond ETF's. I want to add an equity factor to increase the total return that will cover the early minimum withdrawal requirements. For each sector I want to pick one larger stock that is stable and fairly valued vs an equity etf. I picked BNS.NFI,MG,ATD.B,OTC,BCE,BEP.UN,ENB,GUD and CCL.b.

What do you think of the selections and any other thoughts you may have? Thanks

Q: sorry if this is a long winded question. after yesterday's pull back and looking like some more today this might be the pullback everyone has called for since the beginning of the year. i've put together a list of companies i'd like to add to if prices got cheap enough. most are are utility/telecom/pipeline names that have done so well for me over the past few years. seeing as these names have benefitted from the low rate environment and possibly people looking for yield (bond alternatives) is this the right strategy going forward? i'm in love with the dividends but don't want to let that skew my investment so i'm looking for your advice. should i be looking at allocating cash to other sectors that might not be impacted negatively by rising rates? i have room to add to my financial, tech, and industrial holdings based on current weighting in my portfolio.

Q: Can you give me a few names with the safest dividends and yielding over 3.5%? In evaluating dividend safety do you prefer to calculate the payout ratio vs earnings, operating cash flow or free cash flow? If FCF do you average CapEx over a few years or use depreciation as a proxy for stay in business CapEx?

Q: My belief is that you earn more with quiet, boring, steadily growing stocks than ones with a lot of fast rises and fast drops. I like a certain degree of stability which does not include dropping 10% or so when the stock misses earnings slightly, such as Enercare has done today, for example (a stock I considered boring). Which Canadian stocks do you think best fit this category? Or do any?

Q: Based on available historical data, the above have compounded earnings > 10%. I intend to put these good companies into a RRIF to boost the return of a mostly bond/gic content.

In your opinion would you regard each of the above as a good company that should be able to provide a relatively stable future annual return of 8% to 10% with the exception of a market meltdown. Looking for some reassurance regarding the picks. Thank you.

Q: Hi 5i,

I'm looking for some help picking my next 2 or 3 stocks or ETF to add to the income portfolio listed above.I started building this portfolio 5 month ago hoping not to buy at the top. I'm trying to buy 1 or 2 positions every month to average in to the market.
Planned retirement date December 2018.

Thanks in advance.

Q: After 6 1/2 years I finally sold Verizon as its share price and prospects have been trending downwards.

I hold BCE and T, together worth 7.2% of my portfolio. I usually keep Telcos at around 10% so I am debating whether to add to BCE and T or to consider Rogers or Cogeco to replace V.

- BCE and T have both been on a tear and sporting rich RSI's, but have a notably higher yield than RCI.

- Rogers is up 50% in the last 21 months.

- Cogeco has caught fire after years of treading water.

What's a guy to do?

Thanks!

Kim

Q: What would your suggestion(s) be if one wanted to have the safest portfolio possible which generated a 4%-5% return? Would the 5i income portfolio be considered the lowest risk, lowest volatility option to get the desired return?

Q: I would like to use GRT.UN, CM,ENF,PZA,TD,SMU.UN,T,AX,BCE,AND FC in a retirement income portfolios what do you think. Are there any I should not use.

Jim

Q: Hi, I have Bce,bought at 49,and thinking of selling for a profit. There are a few hold ratings with a lower target price. Could this be just to get you to trade?
Would it be a good idea to take profit or hold for longer term? If I sold I would have to replace it with a dividend stock (similar) with a two year+ hold, any suggestions?
Thanks,Brad

Q: hi. im looking to add 3 names to my dividend portfolio. can you rank these names for me for best investment choice for long term play and safety.

Q: How vulnerable do you see telecomm sector profits and dividends, and BCE's situation in particular, to (i) major advertisers moving advertising dollars from traditional TV to social media and video streaming platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, etc, and (ii) to a continuing trend to consumers eliminating traditional home phones? Thank you.

Q: My son is currently 39 years old and is trying to develop a solid diversified portfolio. All of his holdings are in his RRSP except for some money in a Tangerine International growth fund which is in his TFSA. He has some new funds to add to his holdings. Could you please recommend some companies from your model portfolios that would add more diversification to his portfolio keeping in mind his relatively long investment horizon. As always, thanks for your advice.

Q: Bond Proxies: Some investors do not want to own bonds, but prefer to own stocks that are considered "bond proxies"

Can you identify stocks that have these characteristics.

Q: Hello Peter:
I see a constant flow of questions about "best growth stock", or "best for Balanced Portfolio", but can't remember one on Income Portfolio stocks. So here it is: could you give me your 3 (stretch it out to 5 if you wish), best stocks for income? The criteria might be:
- amount of dividend/distribution
- safety of the dividend/distribution
- growth potential of the dividend/distribution

I do apologize if this question has been asked and I somehow missed it.
thanks
Paul L