Investment Q&A

Q: You recently answered another question in the following words.
you may be best served by a well-diversified conservative (or even balanced) portfolio. For your equity component (what ever allocation you decide) stay focused on large-cap dividend payers and weight defensive sectors generously.

If I want to stay with Canadian stocks only, please name your top 10 stocks that would fit this bill.

Thanks.

Q: Please u take on the earnings of SLF vs MFC esp.as to eps,revenue & guidance,if any.Do u still prefer SLF.?Thanks for u usual great services & views

Q: Please comment on slf earnings. Thanks

Q: I am a retired investor living on dividend income. I recently sold some assets and now have 15% of my portfolio in cash. I want to invest the cash across 5 stocks yielding minimum 3.5%. Can you recommend your top picks regardless of sector.

Q: I have become overweight in MFC, and wondering if I should shift some of this investment to SLF. Your thoughts or alternative suggestions to keep in the same sector? Thanks for your excellent service.

Alan

Q: Buy. or Hold. or Sell

Much appreciated. RAM

Q: You recently commented that 18% of a portfolio in utilities is fairly high, especially in a time of rising interest rates and might reduce across the board here.
Can you recommend your top 3 stock picks with dividends that you feel will benefit the most in this time of rising interest rates? Not including the big banks.

Q: I am in my late 30's, and I have a long-term time horizon. However, I find myself gravitating towards stocks with stable businesses that pay dividends. I currently own BEP.un, NWH.un, CSH.un, and SLF.
For a long-term, yet somewhat conservative investor, what are some companies that I should consider adding to my portfolio? Thanks in advance!

Q: Hi Peter,

Could you please choose and rank the top 5 in the list of stocks below based on value today for a 3-5 year hold;
PBL, FTS, ET, KXS, SLF, PKI, GC, PBH, WSP, ATD.B, AEM
The stocks would be purchased for RRSP's

Q: As a follow up question to that asked by Mary Ann about the ten "forever" stock ideas. You indicated a few names could be added to the list and I was interested if you could provide a few of the names you think could be added.

Q: First off I am 30yrs old slightly more growth investor and plan on holding for long term. I have a 25 CND stock portfolio of approx. 300k and Pension of 100k split between a Global Fund and CND Fund. In reviewing my personal portfolio I feel my financial exposure maybe needs some work (17% Weighting). I have a full position in GSY, TD,SLF and a half position in CXI. My question is because TD and SLF are probably already represented in my pension fund and they don't really fit the style of my portfolio would you look at switching them out? If so what suggestions would you have that would compliment GSY and CXI. Thanks

Q: Would you recommend SLF or PWF for a very long term investment, with a focus on rising dividends?

Q: I currently own TD and SLF in financials. I am very dissapointed in SLF's performance. I thought it would do well when interest rates increased. We've had two rate increases and I'm down 5%. I was thinking of replacing it with BNS. That means I'd have two banks, one with US exposure and the other with international exposure. What are your thoughts on this?

Q: I am a little confused by a comment I read in the financial press which suggested that insurance company stocks may actually be poor buys now because rising interest rates lower the value of their significant bond portfolios. I thought that rising interest rates would aid insurance companies by making their long term liabilities more manageable.

Is this the same type of comment that is voiced by some talking heads complaining about current rising interest rates hurting the economy while you point out that rising rates means the economy is improving, a viewpoint that is confirmed by most data and the continually rising market itself.

So is the comment on rising rates being bad for insurance companies simply a comment from some guy who is trying to be different just to stand out or is there validity in this thinking?

Appreciate your insight.

Paul F.

Q: Would you know what exposure our Canadian insurance companies have to the Hurricanes in Florida and Texas? How much of their P&C and reinsurance business is in the southern US?
Thanks

Q: Hello Peter,
With the increase in interest rates, i was expecting Sunlife and Manulife to go higher but they have dropped. Any comments? I want to increase my weighting to 5 percent for Enbridge and Alimentation Couch Tard but both stocks are not responding well eventhough Alimentation had good results. Would 5 percent be too much? Also, if you had a choice between fairfax africa and india, which one would you prefer and finally, I was thinking of Jean Coutu for a 5 year hold. Can you see it doubling in 5 years? Lastly, all the stocks that the shorts went after have not really recovered (CXR, HCG, CRH, etc). What does this say about the analysis that was done by various managers including ones on BNN? I am not blaming anyone but it is discouraging that the shorts were right. Thank you

Q: I have BNS, RY, SLF and FSZ in equal amounts in my "Financial" basket and need to add another name to get my financials weighting to 15%. Can you suggest a new stock and/or a etf (CDN or US stock / etf) to compliment my current holdings OR would you just add to the 4 stocks that I have? Thanks

Q: Admittedly the BoC only raised rates yesterday, but aren't lifecos supposed to do well in rising rates environments? Anyway, where do you this sector going over the next 12 months? Thank you.

Q: Increase in interest rate due to strong economic growth(latest GDP 4.50%) is normally beneficial to financials( esp.Banks & lifcos)Yet TTFS(capped financial index)is down 0.68%,BNS 0.76% & SLF 1.13%.Please help me to understand.Thanks for u great services & views

Q: I know SLF is primarily a Lifco however, does it have any indirect exposure to HARVEY relative to its' co-insurance liabilities with other insurance Cos. or Groups?? Thank you.