Investment Q&A

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

Q: In a fairly diversified portfolio, I only have 2.5% in the telecom sector. I can either bring BCE up to a full position or buy a half position in Telus. I feel comfortable doing either. What would you recommend?

Q: If you had to pick one, which would it be and why?

Q: I asked this question yesterday but you did not include Telus in you reply. Could you let me know your opinion of this company.
Thanks

Q: 11:31 AM 2/23/2017
Hi Peter:

I don't quite understand your rationale for owning gold bullion, gold streamers or gold miner shares as insurance. Today you said : "The key for 'insurance' such as gold is to own it when you need it, not after." It seems to me that this implies selling your gold at a crisis time since insurance only pays off if the house burns down.

Does this mean you advise actually selling gold positions if the market plunges? Golds get hammered too in crisis situations so may not be winners either. Holding golds through a crisis is almost pointless since if you don't sell you just ride the price up and back down again and almost all golds have trivial dividends, so no meaningful income from them while holding. I just don't see the point. Much better to own BCE or RY or TRP! Would you agree?

Thank you.... Paul K

Q: Can you please provide 4 or 5 names of low volatility stocks that in your opinion are profitable and priced at a bargain ?Thanx Robbie

Q: Good morning 5i Team.
Do you believe in stocks to hold forever?
If you do, which ones would make your short list?
I look forward to reading the questions and comments daily.
Thank You.

Q: I have a question about in which sector BCE resides. According to TMX group, BCE is in communication services, while according to another website, sectorspdr.com, telecommunication companies are lumped into the technology sector ETF that goes by the symbol XLK (http://www.sectorspdr.com/sectorspdr/sector/xlk). Do telecommunication companies comprise their own sector, or should I also consider them part of the technology sector? Thanks for reading, and I await your reply.