AGT Food & Ingredients (AGT.TO)

Ranks 578 out of 700, so is roughly in the bottom 3^rd of the database. A recent report suggested headwinds for them. Earnings were down 82%. Earnings are expected to grow by 57%, but there seems to be some scepticism. You are better off looking at other opportunities.

Ranks 578 out of 700, so is roughly in the bottom 3^rd of the database. A recent report suggested headwinds for them. Earnings were down 82%. Earnings are expected to grow by 57%, but there seems to be some scepticism. You are better off looking at other opportunities.

He just started to realize that quarter after quarter they were starting to miss and debt levels were quite high. Fairfax lent them quite a bit of money. It is like Warren Buffet taking part of the company on the cheap. He exited about 9 months ago. He is watching for revenues to come up.

(A Top Pick Oct 31/16. Down 33.88%.) Sold his holdings in May when they had a couple of back-to-back quarters of disappointing earnings.

This has been a significant disappointment. He is looking at this more and more, because it has gotten hammered. The most recent investment by Fairfax got them out of a debt problem. We do pulses in Canada more than anyone else in the world, and that is good. The bigger issue is the importation, which has really hit the stock. India has some issues with our pulses. Pulses are a wonderful long-term play on the protein story. If they can fix their balance sheet and get over the India problem, then you might have a really good upside opportunity.

They’ve been hurt by tough lentil market conditions, and a lot of that has to do with what is happening in India. India had a requirement, effectively a tariff, where they wanted lentils going into India to be fumigated before they got there. They have now relaxed the restriction. However, that more than anything, depressed lentil prices, which is only about 5% of this company’s business. They are moving more downstream which should help stabilize the business. Dividend yield of 2.3%. (Analysts’ price target is $33.)

This has been an off year for them. The pulse market has been somewhat in the doldrums. The perennial problem with the fumigation issues on importing pulses into India, has surfaced again. Over time, the company has been diversifying into ingredients for human and pet consumption. They’ve recently just bought some more transportation access to a port facility. Dividend yield of 2.4%. (Analysts’ price target is $35.)

(Market Call Minute.) She would avoid this.

He understands this has been under attack from a US Short seller, which has really driven down the price. Technically the trend is lower highs and lower lows. It is resisting its 50-day moving average, and there is nothing positive from a technical perspective. There was a significant gap down between $30 and $27. Seasonally, agriculture has strength from now through to September and then dips in September to rise again to the end of the year. This one continues to go down.

(A Top Pick July 15/16. Down 24%.) A number of things have impacted this company. They had the supposedly fumigation problem with exports to India. Pulses are probably one of the fastest growing demand areas within the nutrition segments. They did very well last year, and the stock may have gotten ahead of itself. The 1^st quarter was very disappointing. Rumours are that India is going to have a relatively poor crop, which is going to have them import more. At $25, it represents fairly good value.

Had a really tough quarter recently and the stock took a very big hit. It was really the wording of the company, reading between the lines, that gave a bit of cause for concern. They talked about weakening demand, political strife, change in the demand picture. He wouldn’t really care about that, but the company does have quite a lot of debt. A situation where you might want to back off for 2, 3 or 4 quarters to see how it plays out.

Reported a quarter that disappointed analysts and investors. They talked about some of their customers in the Mideast having difficulties. Produces lentils. Feels this has a very good future, led by a very passionate and charismatic CEO. He has been buying on pullbacks.

Doesn’t know why it has been dropping lately. It has become the dominant force in the lentil supply to countries like India. India had a big crop. If he owned, he would tend to stay in it.

Sold his holdings a few weeks ago. Ostensibly, they have a lot of good things going for it. They are producers of pulses, beans, lentils, things that are really on trend with health foods. Management has had a consistent failure of executing a plan to street expectations. Their latest quarter had a pretty severe profit warning.

The chart shows this is going down, which he likes. He wants to buy something that is cheap. India is the biggest consumer of lentils and chickpeas, and these things are growing in value.