Investment Q&A

Q: In your response to a reader's question about MFC's earnings you said "The stock remains very cheap at 8X earnings, and can benefit if interest rates rise."

While I agree with you, I have now held MFC for 15 years and am beginning to lose patience on the turnaround. MFC pays a nice dividend, for income in my RRIF, but on MarketCall today, Norm Levine is still negative on MFC. He says they may not benefit as much as you might think if interest rates rise.

I have done well on SLF, which is 1.8% of a diversified portfolio,. Should I just throw in the towel on MFC and double my position in SLF?

If not SLF, what would you recommend? Or should I be patient with MFC for a few more years?

Q: May you please comment on both of these companies earnings? Thank you kindly

Q: Non-registered account with goal of primarily dividend income has done quite well, with all of the noted holdings nicely in positive territory. In hind sight MG and SYZ would have been in a registered account. SYZ is up 63%, MG 24%.
Overall account yield is currently 3.8%. Would prefer it closer to 5%
Need some help with this "good problem". Take capital gain now and move into yieldier positions, or let running stocks run and deal with bigger gain in future?
If I move out of some of the growthier stocks, which div payers minimum 3% yield to move into?
Overall portfolio diversification is pretty decent, and diversification within this account does not have to be perfect - dividend security within this account is more important.

Thanks,
Jim

Q: Doing some spring cleaning and attempting to tilt my folio into more income and less growth/risk. I follow the BP almost exclusively and would like your opinion on which Div payers in the BP you would increase in weight, and what non Div payers you would decrease. Thanks!

Q: Taking these 7 income oriented equities and looking to rank them for risk in a correction situation moving forward it seems that if we use the March 2020 correction as a guide FTS and BCE dropped the least (28%) followed by RY (33%) then TD,BNS, AQN (35-37%) with SLF trailing the pack at 46%. The reason behind any future correction could of course be different than a virus-induced shutdown of the economy. But still your ranking of safest to least safe is appreciated and if your answer would be different depending on the cause of the correction then your comment on that would be nice to have as well. Thank you for assisting me in trying to build the most secure portion of my income strategy. Any additional equities that fit in the lowest downside category that you might suggest would also be most welcome.

Q: Hello 5i Research
With the possibility that interest rate will increase in the for seeable future.
What are your recommendation of 3 Canadian and US stocks that should benefit from higher interest rates.
Thanks

Q: Good morning, Disregarding any other factors, which would you choose between these these two stocks, over a three to five year period, BAM. A or SLF, thanks?

Q: What do you think of this twenty stock dividend portfolio for a taxable account? I am focusing on high quality and it yields about 3.8% . Any changes you would make?

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. I am normally a buy-and-hold investor for the very long term (RBC = blue chip, hold forever; while in a higher risk and associated lower weighting category, I hold Alaris forever). I currently hold SLF but have been reviewing/comparing its performance with BMO. The 10 year, 5 year and 3 year charts favor Sunlife, but the 1 year and shorter duration charts favor BMO. There appears to be a significant inflection point starting in November 2020.

Can you explain what occurred around that time? Is it simply the reflation of the economy favoring BMO relative to SLF? Do you see this continuing for the next period of time or do you see SLF playing catch-up?

Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: I’m considering the addition of LNF, SLF, and EIF to RRSP. Would you recommend buying them at the current levels for 3 years?

Thank you very much for your advice.

Q: I'm over weight Canadian financials but only hold two insurance companies - SLF and IFC.
Would they move in a similar fashion? Or do they focus on different insurance spheres? Would it be good keep both?
Thanks
Robert

Q: Between the 3 insurance companies, what are the pros and cons of each, if you could suggest which would be a buy today for an RRSP.

Q: I’m adding to a partially established portfolio (growth-oriented, long-term). I’m interested both in taking advantage of the recent tech downturn (although not too much, as I’m already somewhat tech-heavy) and in further diversifying. Two questions:

1. I own partial positions in the following securities and am looking to add more. Could you rank them in your order of preference for purchasing now? Any you’d avoid buying now?

WELL, SHOP, ATZ, STC, PHO, ENGH, KXS

2. I’m considering buying positions in the following new securities (not easily comparable, I know), with a view to diversity and growth, as well as US exposure. Could you rank them in order of preference for purchasing now? Any you’d avoid buying now?

BNS, SLF, PLC, MG, LAC, REAL, TFII, NVDA.US, ROKU.US, SQ.US

Thanks for your great work and please feel free to dock me for two questions.

Chris

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. A question earlier today has motivated me to finally ask this question....been thinking of it for quite a while. It had to do with potential rising interest rates and your response was that dividend investors should be prepared for a bumpy ride in the short term (my paraphrase of your answer).

I own the above securities and for the most part trim-add around core positions that I hold for the long term. Is it possible to divide the above securities into two camps....one that would be "ok" in a rising interest rate environment and the other that I should consider trimming a bit or maybe selling? I am ok riding things out for the long term and do not normally react to short term volatility.

Thanks for your help....Steve

Q: I am trying to maximize income In my LIRA before I convert it to a LIF. I hold a good weighting of ZEB from several years back when I was a novice investor. Now I am looking to shed the MER by going with the individual financial stocks. Would you please rank the above financials and others you think are worthy for a hold and forget steady income stream?


Thank you


Steve

Q: please provide me your best 4 income plays in both
Canada and USA, thanks, retired seniors mid 70's.

Q: Of the companies listed, which one would you start a new half position in today for a potential 5 plus year hold in a balanced portfolio. And would any in particular benefit from reopening? I understand that I would need to keep on eye on the cyclicals with a view to exiting if needed.

Q: Retired dividend-income investor. Short term (weeks to months, not years), which stock do you think will produce the most Total Return...Sunlife or CIBC? When I compare their charts over various timeframes and look at their fundamentals, I don't get a clear picture. I am leaning towards SLF.
Thanks...Steve

Q: Hi 5i team
I would like to thank you for all your sound advice since inception. I would need to trim up to 5 stocks from this portfolio. If you were in that position, which ones would you cut starting with first to cut up to fifth. These stocks are in a rrsp with equal percentages. Thanks. Gilles

Q: For new money to top up my income portfolio holdings per above. How would you rank if buying today based on valuation and future growth (revenue, earnings,dividends)
Please also rank the sectors (banks, insurance, utilities, telecom ). Thank-you.