What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

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Peculiar_Investor
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What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

This topic is where you can post actual or potential sells in 2017! We'd ask that you please include your rationale for the education of us all.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by scomac »

Sold my entire stake in AGU today. I had been planning on doing this for a while as I wasn't thrilled with the merger with POT. AGU was far more diversified product wise and had an extensive retail network to off-set the commodity price risk. AFAIWC, the merger did nothing but increase commodity price risk. That said, I was quite happy to take the $20 or so per share price lift since the announcement last summer.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by Thegipper »

Sold Richard's Packaging. I did well with the stock. Over the past 2 or 3 months it was showing weakness. I started examine other tape and packaging companies and decided to move on to ITP. The valuation of Richard's was getting very high
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by schmuck »

Have been reducing my utilities holdings a bit since the election, and trimmed my REIT position today (HR.UN and CAR.UN) in favor of stuff that could benefit more from higher rates.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by AltaRed »

schmuck wrote:Have been reducing my utilities holdings a bit since the election, and trimmed my REIT position today (HR.UN and CAR.UN) in favor of stuff that could benefit more from higher rates.
I've actually put some interest sensitive stocks on my Watchlist/Alerts for the opposite reason.... finding value at lower levels. Things like FTS, EMA that may fall into the '30s later this year.... and a REIT for my TFSA. I have enough holdings in banks and insurance companies.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by westcoastfella »

A few moves today, mainly to trim positions in interest rate sensitive sectors

- Trimmed position in Artis REIT (AX.UN), I had become overweight in general in the sector. I hold both AX and AAR, and like AAR better for its industrial concentration, so sold about 1/3 of my AX. Nearly break even with dividends.

- Sold FTS. I hold both FTS and EMA, and decided that I wanted to scale back my investments in utilities in general, and simplify my portfolio. It was a tough call, EMA and FTS are both worthwhile holdings and there is nothing wrong with either one, it might as well have been a coin toss... My gain on FTS was higher (I like to make money), and the dividend yield on EMA is higher, so it ended up being the winner. I could easily find myself back in FTS again if the price comes down to AltaRed's numbers.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by brad911 »

If interest rates were to really climb you could see FTS and EMA trade down past $25 very easily. I have data on both of them dating back to the mid 90's

In 95 (more senior members can help me out as I was only 14 :D ) rates rose very substantially and both FTS and EMA traded down to yields of 6% for FTS & 9% for EMA. CU paid 6% during that time (3.3% today).

I'm not suggesting we'll see rates that high (8%) but the sharp rise (4% to 8%) definitely drove those yields up significantly along with the payout ratios.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by brad911 »

Sold my position in ENB.PR.H today for a 40% gain

Recent run was the decision. Still holding quite a bit of the preferreds I went deep into back in Feb 2016, but starting to take some profits from the lower credit qualities.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by Thegipper »

brad911 wrote:Sold my position in ENB.PR.H today for a 40% gain

Recent run was the decision. Still holding quite a bit of the preferreds I went deep into back in Feb 2016, but starting to take some profits from the lower credit qualities.
You did good on this one.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by jay »

brad911 wrote:Sold my position in ENB.PR.H today for a 40% gain

Recent run was the decision. Still holding quite a bit of the preferreds I went deep into back in Feb 2016, but starting to take some profits from the lower credit qualities.
Awesome! Congrats on these great gains Brad. I am in a similar boat. Took early but decent gains on several prefs (including ENB.PR.H) and replaced them with ZPR and CPD at the time. I gotta sell some to limit my allocation to 10% but I am in no rush.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by patriot1 »

In a similar vein the runup has prompted me to sell about half my holdings in ECA and TA. Too much of my portfolio and too little yield.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by SkaSka »

I finished selling off the rest of my Apple at $119 today. The IRR on the investment over 1.5 years worked out to 16% (including dividends collected).

Apple represented an attractive short-to-mid-term investment when the stock price got depressed into the low $100s and below. They sit on ample amounts of cash, sell obscene amounts of iPhones, make equally obscene amounts of cash flow and profits from those iPhones, and are still in fashion.

However, I wouldn't feel comfortable with Apple as a long-term, buy-hold-and-forget investment due to its heavy reliance on the iPhone as its cash cow in an ever changing environment.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by Hammerer »

Jumping out of my e-series mutual funds in my TFSAs. I'm not sure why I got into them in the first place: as long as I'm holding for at least a year, I'm better off holding VCN/VTI MER-wise. I've got several thousands on the US side, and that many more on the $CAD side.

For VCN, I have to watch the bid/ask spreads to make sure that doesn't eat my savings, but not for VTI.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by westcoastfella »

trimmed my position in Scotia Bank (BNS) by roughly 1/3. I've been very happy with this holding, it was my first purchase after moving to a DIY individual stock plan back in 2012 or 2013, and I've been adding to it ever since. However, it has crept up to become not only my largest single holding, but roughly 8% of my entire portfolio, across all accounts and all currencies. As much as I like it, I don't want to hold that much of any single stock, so I'll diversify some of the money out.

I still have a substantial holding in BNS and will continue to own it, I like the fact that its a Canadian bank with a significant foreign footprint. I will use the proceeds to acquire another, complimentary, Canadian bank in its place. I'm currently looking at NA (domestic focus, big but not one of the big 5, priced lower than the big 5 in terms of P/E) and TD (exposure to US, reasonably price/yield/growth prospects). In terms of valuations all of the banks are roughly the same and bouncing around highs, so there are no apparently "deals" to be had here.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by Pickles »

Three of my several trade orders today have been filled.
In my non-registered account I sold CGX, bought four months ago, for a 7% profit. Today, CGX hit is 12 month high which prompted me to sell. I want the cash for other ventures and feel its current yield (3%) doesn't compensate me adequately, considering the stock's price volatility.

In my RRSP I sold my NWC, for $29.15 -- 18% profit after 3 months. I held NWC in my RRSP earlier and sold when it was in the $30s, then purchased more when the price slid to $24.65. I continue to own NWC in my non-reg account and will add to it on the dips.

Also in my RRSP, I sold the remaining third of my VDU which has stalled in the doldrums for a year. Today seemed a good day to ditch it since the stock hit a 12 month high. I have a lot of cash in my RRSP and will deploy some into one or two foreign ETFs after consulting the appropriate threads on FWF :)
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by FinEcon »

westcoastfella wrote:.....In terms of valuations all of the banks are roughly the same and bouncing around highs, so there are no apparently "deals" to be had here.
I would not agree with that statement, in my view they are fairly different beasts. This is a good starting point for comparison: http://www.cba.ca/bank-financial-results-annual
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by BRIAN5000 »

FinEcon wrote:
westcoastfella wrote:.....In terms of valuations all of the banks are roughly the same and bouncing around highs, so there are no apparently "deals" to be had here.
I would not agree with that statement, in my view they are fairly different beasts. This is a good starting point for comparison: http://www.cba.ca/bank-financial-results-annual
Think I'm with westcoastfella on this one not that means anything, 20 - 27% away from my buyzone, but I hold a fair amount of all of them and would only buy if there was a 20-30% off sale.
*

Code: Select all

  	price now  	buy price	
BMO	 $98.23 	$76	-23%
BNS	 $77.37 	$58	-25%
CM	 $110.66 	$90	-19%
TD	 $67.00 	$53	-21%
NA	 $55.23 	$40	-27%
RY	 $94.27 	$72	-24%
*taken from unreliable sources, rounded off
This information is believed to be from reliable sources but may include rumor and speculation. Accuracy is not guaranteed
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by JaydoubleU »

When it comes to the banks, I think one is best off to take the "Rip Van Winkle" approach: Buy on weakness, go back to sleep, wake up in 25 years and see how things are going.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by westcoastfella »

FinEcon wrote: I would not agree with that statement, in my view they are fairly different beasts. This is a good starting point for comparison: http://www.cba.ca/bank-financial-results-annual
I would agree that they are different beasts in terms of focus and size. I was referring to the fact that the big 5 are all currently at (or near) 52 week highs and that all seem to be fairly - if not slightly over - valued, hence no apparent "value play" or clear buying opportunity. Not like a year ago when I was buying BNS at $52/share, sigh... :?

That being said, I dipped a toe into TD today to diversify. I like their heavier US exposure, and they should do well given the projections for the US economy in general. I'll now look to add on dips
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by nisser »

Everyone and their mother is buying TD and RBC because of their "US exposure". I think all the lemmings going down the same hole are in for a big disappointment.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by kcowan »

Lemmings go off the same cliff! Maybe you were thinking of rabbits?
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by scomac »

nisser wrote:Everyone and their mother is buying TD and RBC because of their "US exposure". I think all the lemmings going down the same hole are in for a big disappointment.
I bought the two banks that had the poorest performance in the previous twelve months a year ago -- BNS & NA. Since that time the return has been in excess of 40% plus dividends.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by Descartes »

1. Nisser is talking about buying now not 12 months ago. Prices of the CDN banks have changed somewhat since then.

2. Lemmings don't jump off cliffs to commit suicide - see what that evil Disney corporation did here.

3. While I don't know if there will be a "big" disappointment, I can't dispute that there might be an unrealistic expectation that US exposure is going to a huge catalyst for such CDN banks.
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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by hboy43 »

It has never been clear to me why buying the banks at PE ~12, yield ~4 -to 5% is such a stunningly bad idea and pipelines at PE 20, yield ~3 to 4% cannot lose.

In last 12 months I have purchased RY around $65 and $88. If I had known in the $65 dollar days that the rest of the portfolio would do so well, I would have done all my RY buying then. Unfortunately I have to make all my investing decisions without the ability to predict the future.

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Re: What did you sell? What might you sell? (2017)

Post by AltaRed »

I learned some time ago that what seems to matter mores is buying stocks (or not) within their own traditional, e.g. P/E, multiples, not necessarily what its multiple was compared to another stock in another sector. To get the real answer, one has to look beyond P/E to material things like ROI to find out why people pay bigger multiples on certain stocks. P/E is not necessarily a good metric in that earnings can be severely depressed in a high growth company that is still in high growth. Earnings catch up later one hopes...if that growth translates into earnings. Valeant is not that example.

IOW, there is no right answer.....or everyone would be rich in the right stocks.

Edited: Removed superfluous material.
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