Investment Q&A

Q: Hello - Your thoughts on TRP earnings, and more importantly, your level of confidence of this company going forward. Does it deserve the current valuation?

Thanks.

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. I focus a lot on asset allocation...by sector and by security. I break out my ETFs into their various sectors (ex. ZLB, ZRE, ZWC, XIT, CDZ, LIFE) and then add in my individual securities (ex. AQN, BCE, NWC, NTR, PBH, PLC, RY, TRP, WSP, etc). Up until now I have lumped Telecoms, Utilities and Pipelines into one category and Energy is a stand-alone sector. The only "adjustment" I make is for TRP. I would normally assign it to Utilities, but because it seems to trade more like the Energy sector I assign it 50-50 to Utilities-Energy.

Fast forward to now with the increasing amount of "Renewable Energy". When researching individual companies for potential inclusion into my portfolio, they seem to all come up "Utilities" (ex. BEP, BIP, NPI). It appears Renewable Energy is not a subset of Energy.

So my question is...how do we deal with the asset allocation? Is Renewable Energy assigned to Utilities or Energy or is it a Hybrid?

Thanks...Steve

Q: Is this a good entry point for TRP as a long-term hold? It seems out of favour and I wonder if this is more a reflection of the industry than the stock itself.
Many thanks for your expertise.
Ian

Q: Hi Guys
Wondering about the free cash flow, or lack of it, being a concern, considering such a large amount of Long Term Debt.
Can one feel comfortable purchasing this stock with negative free cash flow, according to Morningstar the TTM free cash flow is -1.26 Billion
thanks

Q: Hi, solely in terms of dividend sustainability could you please rank TRP, ENB and PPL and briefly why. Thanks.

Q: ENB. SU,TRP and PPL are my current energy holdings and I am down on all four. I have held for a long time and I am concerned energy is not coming back quickly. What would you suggest.? Reduce in all, cut 1 or 2 , if so which would you suggest I sell. As usual your input is respected.

Q: For renewable energy, I already have BEPC and AQN. For pipeline and utilities, I've ENB and TRP. I can harvest a small tax loss by selling ENB. Should I use the sale proceeds to add to TRP or buy back ENB after 30 days? Which would you prefer and why? Or would I get much better future growth and financial strength by using the proceeds to buy another renewable energy company like NPI? Thanks.

Q: During these times, which is a better long time hold. TC energy or Fortis.

Q: Retired dividend-income investor. Long term holder of TRP. Would the recent decline in share price be attributable to the Biden-Trump debate #1, which analysts say Biden won (therefore putting Keystone XL at further risk) and/or the movement towards the change in sentiment (carbon-based vs renewable energy)?

I normally am a long term holder of core positions, with trimming/adding when rebalancing is required. I was due to add, once TRP came back down to $58. Now it is at $55 and I have adjusted my "adding" target to $50. I am not too far below a full position (at roughly 85%).

I do not plan to sell TRP believing that as the pandemic subsides, the oil & gas industry will recover. However, I am beginning to wonder that I may be better served to allocate these "top-up" funds to the renewable part of the energy sector instead. I also own AQN and FTS.

Your thoughts? Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: Retired, dividend income investor. Currently own AQN, FTS and TRP. If I wanted to add a 4th name (with a focus on renewables), what would you recommend? It would be mostly in a taxable account, with possibly some in a TFSA account. Or if AQN and FTS are enough names, should I just add funds to them? If AQN-FTS are not enough names, would you consider BEPC or BIPC? I like utilizing the dividend tax credit.
Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: hi. in regards these pipelines: 1) how much are these stocks dependent on the price of oil, on the volumes of oil through their pipes, and where that oil is being shipped from (eg Canada) to ( eg Canada or the US ). 2) do these stocks need growth in the tar sands for their growth? 3) how long a runway do they have with our weaning off oil?

Q: This question is about diversification and percentage of stocks vs ETFs. In my overall portfolio (combined tfsa, rrsp, and non-registered), I have roughly 37% VFV/ZSP, and the rest fairly equally weighted across ENB, KXS, SHOP, VGH, AQN, BEP.UN/C, BIP.UN/C, BNS, CPX, GDI, NVDA, RY, TEAM, VGG, TRP, BAM.A. I'm in my mid 30s and have a long time frame, but would prefer to position for short term performance as much as possible. So, with some cash to allocate, can you please recommend a couple US and CAN stocks to add to this mix (or recommend just adding to what I hold)? Also, given your recent market update on covid vs sector performance, what would you do with the VFV/ZSP allocation? I am open to moving that allocation to stocks instead of an ETF, and am wondering if I should take that path, and how best to position there given the big tech names/top holdings in the ETFs, vs some holdings across sectors that are currently down. Thanks!

Q: Hi
If you had to put together a shopping list of solid long term dividend payers that you could pick-up if things went on sale again in the coming quarters, what would you buy? I'd want yields north of 7% so it would have to be a good sale. :)
And if you wanted to do it in one swoop with an ETF, would one of these be suitable: XEI or XDIV?
Thank you.

Q: In your opinion which company would provide the best return over the next 5 years if Biden becomes president and the Democrats take over both houses?

Q: The Canadian pipelines had a bit of a dip on Wednesday. Is this share price decline related at all to the hurricane in the US? If so, how will the hurricane impact business for the Canadian pipelines, as a whole?

Thanks.

John

Q: Tax loss versus growth considerations question. Holding ENB for several years and still below water. Have held PPL for a couple of years prior to recent meltdown and recently decided to sell PPL to realize tax loss using TRP as proxy for next several weeks until 30 day period has expired. Looking at your recent answers to questions on these 3 pipeline operators (I only need two, maybe one) and considering TRP focus on a friendlier fossil fuel firmament USA got me to thinking that maybe I should just hang on to TRP despite Keystone and Crooked Joe threats rather than going back to PPL after 30 day period is up... In your view which of the 3 companies have the better growth prospects in USA space given all three are down in this negative fossil fuel energy space? Portfolio is growth/income focused tilted mostly to equities. Retired but do not depend on portfolio income.

Q: I've owned both these for over 11 years now and have been very happy with net returns (dividend compounding + capital). Not overweight at all: 1300 shares of each - added to over the years on weakness. My concern is the hysteria over climate change and governments actions and potential actions that have hurt O & G companies. I believe that both these companies have large investments in utility businesses and plans to expand that part of their business. Q: should I continue to hold them, add to ENB (price low), or leave my positions alone.

Q: Hi, would you consider TRP overall less risk than ENB given it pipes more natural gas than oil and it has less growth projects and therefore execution risk?

Q: How would you rate TRP as an investment if the permit for Keystone is revoked by the US administration? Do you think this is already reflected in the current price? Does TRP have other avenues for growth?

Thanks,
John

Q: Dear 5i team:
Your software indicates our family’s investments are too Canadian-focused. However, I prefer our “home bias”, for three reasons:
(a) most of our assets are non-registered, and the dividend tax credit is especially favourable for Canadian source dividends in a province such as ours (Ontario);
(b) I like supporting the companies that I invest in (e.g., we buy Peller family wines, since we own their shares);
(c) but most important, many of the “Canadian” businesses we own are surprisingly international; among our top 20 equity holdings are:
Alimentation couche-tarde (Circle K is world-wide);
Brookfield Asset Management (globally focused company that invests wherever the opportunities are);
CGI Group (revenues are 84% outside Canada per 2019 annual report);
CP Rail (significant U.S. revenues);
Fortis (65% of earning are in U.S.);
Manulife (growing Asian revenues);
Restaurant Brands International (most of Burger King and Popeye’s restaurants are outside of Canada);
Shopify (not sure, but suspect international revenues are growing faster than Canadian revenues);
TC Energy (dropped “Canada” from its name to reflect its growing U.S. presence);
TD bank (substantial and growing U.S. presence);
Anyways, the above-listed 10 stocks represent about one-third of our overall equity holdings (in absolute $ terms), but I would not consider these companies as being “100% Canadian”. I wonder whether your software could be rejigged to reflect the relative percent earnings (or revenue) contributions, broken down per Canada, U.S., Europe, Asia, and so forth. I suspect our home “bias” is not nearly as substantial as it appears.
Ted