Investment Q&A

Q: 7:50 AM 3/18/2020
Hi
Are you suggesting selling A&W in your reply this morning to Andrew on March 18, 2020. You said "YUM and CBRL have debt. AW.UN also does, and its cash flow depends on restaurant sales' royalties. We would be very very cautious here. It is better to miss out on a potential gain than to watch capital potentially disappear. "

Do you think A&W will survive till the virus crisis is finally over and patrons return?
Thank you............. Paul K

Q: I found the earlier question about PPL prefers interesting. So my thought is to sell my PPL common and get the tax loss and buy the PPL preferrred even though the up side on the prefers is only about 100%. In doing some research I found that I do not understand the dynamics of rate reset perfers. The A is reset in 2013 and is down 2.5% today. The S is reset in 2020 and is up 7%. Both are down about the same from the issue. I would have thought that the 2020 resets would be much less valuable as they are sure to be called at the current market price and reissued at low interest. What am I missing

Q: Hi 5i - What up with the TSLA trading halt this afternoon? Is their new factory in China impacting shares as well as COVID effects on car sales?

Q: Could you give us an updated opinion on EL. I don't mind the lack of liquidity and low yield, but i d like to know if represents better value than other in the field. Compared to SLF or POW . I also would like to know how you d compare it to fairfax. With fresh money, would you at this point buy ELF, FFH, Ifc or SLF.
Thank you.

Q: In light of the company's audit and material weakness in financial reporting, what would you suggest someone holding a full position of one's growth portfolio? It is very close to the 52 week low but given the size, should it really matter? Get out at any cost, or count it as dead money until it gets back on its feet with outsized percentage returns? Is it fair to say the business model has little financial risk; mostly it is the reputation that fetches clients?

Q: I have held efn and ecn forever. I should have sold at their highs along with lspd. At this point all three have been beaten very badly. Are the dividends safe (ecn and efn)? What about the core business of fleet? This was supposed to be sticky similar to a utility stock but the stock has certainly not held up. Will the customers go bankrupt and revenues dip? Does ecn have risk of lending default? And how sticky is lightspeed’s business? If their clients (smb retail) go under they have about 100m in the bank. Would that last long enough for a turn around? How do you view the limited insider and institutional ownership? Is this a concern?

Sorry for the many questions feel free to remove additional question credits.

Q: Hello there,
I know oil is ugly here but looking at these two. Which one has the stronger balance sheet and are there any dividend sustainability issues? Suncor literally just increased their dividend 11% last month and announced a buy back. I think they would lose a lot of credibility if they turn around and cut it now? easier not to proceed with the buy back?
thanks

Q: Do you see the regulators changing the rules for what non prime lenders can charge to help Canadians and essentially the client base of GSY and how would that impact on the company and the stock. Why do you think the stock sold off so much today?

Q: Can I please get your opinion on the above stocks? Would you consider these bargains at these prices if one is expecting this turbulence not be last longer than one quarter? How sustainable do you view their dividends if we enter a brief recession? I'm wondering whether to get greedy while others are fearful.

Thanks for the great service!

Q: Just curious which Canadian listed ETF's you would hold for the quickest rebound. I hold XUS,XWD,ZQQ,ZUT,ZEB.
Thanks
Carl

Q: As we go through this cycle of the economy shutting down, stimulus to keep the lights on, and a restart of the economy... in Canada are we looking at inflation or deflation for the short or long term?
Thanks!

Q: Hi Guys
Quite struck by how much WPT has fallen given it is supposed to own mainly distributions centres like Amazon, which are apparently going gangbusters. Am I wrong here? What do you think about WPT at these levels. Are they also owners of regular Industrial properties that maybe more susceptible to a recession?

Thanks

Stuart

Q: Thank You for continuing to be the voice of reason for the amateur like me!!

What ETF's are best for 5-10 year hold for the following markets
US S&P, UK, Germany, China, Russia, Asia (general), South America (general), Africa (general). Looking to take advantage of weakness and average in.

Q: Dear 5i team,
Would you have concerns to buy a really small number of any of these, say 50 shares, none are in my portfolio. The prices seem very attractive and I have not sourced key info that would say ‘no’ but I’d like to check in with you in in case I’ve overlooked something.
Which would you say is best, and no worries if you consider them all a ‘no’ right now.

In the energy arena, in light of several posts about bankruptcies, could you enlighten further please:
- are there any that stand out as being at greatest risk of that happening
- for big/medium names like ENB, CNQ, SU, KEY for example, would you consider them solid enough to be ‘immune’ to bankruptcy (assuming they are not in your group of ‘greatest risk’)

As a dividend investor, do you as a team ever produce a list of stocks most at risk/greatest likelihood of cutting dividends? Are most investors surprised by dividend cuts or is there a set of clear indicators that a cut is coming?

Thank you!

Q: Hi Peter

What % breakdown would you suggest for Horizon portfolio in cash account under current situation for new money. ( I currently have 50%HXCN/ 25%HXS/ 25%HXQ)? or suggest any changes. I don’t like bonds.

Thanks

Q: Hello 5i
Could you please compare the ‘87 vs the current crash in terms of depth of declines and the time it took to rebound to precrash levels?
Thanks
Dave

Q: Peter, All Canadians and many Canadian businesses are being asked to
"lean-in" , and most are doing so.
Q1: If you take away its profit motive, what CAN the TMX do to help us exit "crazyville" ? ( eg: uptick rule, tollbooth for the algos, ban the shorts, etc)
Q2: If you remove "regulatory capture" from the OSC, what can they do, if anything ?
Thanks in advance for your usual unbiased perspective !

Q: Air Canada is now trading below 3x past earnings. Appreciating that they have a solid balance sheet and look likely to have pockets deep enough to ride this out, as well as a likelihood of a bailout and plenty or room to grow post outbreak, any thoughts on low enough?

Q: What are you thoughts on this stock after the massive correction post earnings? I was fortunate to get off a portion of my position at the top. Thanks.

Q: Can you give your thoughts on this? I held it for a while and sold much higher but it's looking good again for income. Has it cut its dividend before? Do you have concerns about it? Thank you!