Clearwater Seafoods Inc. (CLR.TO)

On the surface it looks like a business with very high barriers to entry, with licenses giving them almost monopoly positions. Also, it’s a capital-intensive business, where they put a lot of money into large ships, recouping it through cash flow earned by harvesting seafood. Historically, they’ve generated high returns on capital, and they’ve been good investments, but in certain periods it leads to a lot of spending, negative free cash flow, quarter to quarter volatility. As a value investor, he likes to see a nice steady cash flow stream. With this one, you have to take a very long-term view. If you can do that, it is a pretty good business.

They’ve had their trouble a little bit here. We haven’t really seen a lot of strength. We want it to consolidate a little bit more and see a breakout. Right now, technically, it’s not looking strong. He would be holding off on this.

They've had a tough go recently. They missed earnings and sales have been disappointing. Also, doesn't like their balance sheet much, right now. Doesn't think it’s in jeopardy of going under, but they really have to turn around their earnings growth picture, and improve operating performance and drive down costs to get investors interested again. Thinks it is probably dead money for a period of time, until they get 3 or 4 quarters of consistent results. If you own, he would suggest getting out of it and looking at it later when everything looks better.

(Market Call Minute) It is a very capital intensive business and they lost their monopoly on scallops in the North Sea.

This had an amazing turnaround, but it has come off lately. It’s way too expensive for him. He likes stocks that have come off. This company is a leader in its field.

Followed this closely years ago. It was struggling to survive. The numbers did not support him Buying the company, but he really liked management. They seemed to be bull dogs. Wished he had bought this. Management turned things around. He doesn't know their financials.

He exited about 5 months or so ago. They pretty much had 100% of the quotas in Canadian in these shell fish. The last couple of quarters were half decent for them but the last few years were choppy. It is coming down to a valuation that makes more sense.

Doesn’t know this well. It used to be on his Stopwatch List at around $1. One reason he liked the stock was because he liked management and thought they would do everything they could to do get out of the major hole they were in. They did it and it had a tremendous run. He doesn’t know the current financials.

Prefers High Liner (HLF-T) because of protein and the ability to get protein to market. Also, it is a bit of a currency play.

Has just broken down through a very important level. The trend is on the downside. They sell most of their production into the US. The Cdn$ is getting higher, which means margins are getting squeezed and causing the stock to come under some pressure. Also, they had full access to a certain part of the Newfoundland/Labrador area for certain types of fish. Apparently one of the 4 areas has been taken from them to go to the aboriginal community.

Excellent business. They benefit from being a harvester and distributor of seafood globally. Has a very strong position, owning quotas to fish freshwater fish in Canada. The stock pulled back because there were some temporary issues last year. It is cheaper than it has been in a while. Thinks they are going to have a great year in 2017/2018. Dividend yield of 1.9%. (Analysts’ price target is $14.75.)

The chart shows this is staying below the $12 mark. A lot of indicators are sort of flat. Normally, staples do reasonably well during the summer. At worst, this is going to stick around $11.05. Indicators are right around neutral, but are trying to turn up. You want to get it above the resistance of $11.40, and then you can look at the $12 to see if the troops can get enough force to push beyond that.

This is seafood based on very precious permits up and down the East Coast of the Americas. It was very, very prominent at one stage, but he has seen very little on it recently. This is good, because it is in a very special area of exporting very high-quality shellfish to the far east. Very competent people who have world experience in marketing fish.

This is in Consumer Staples, which tend to do well in the summer. They are the more defensive areas of the market. The chart shows this is bouncing from its 50-day moving average at $11.13, which is support. If you can pick it up around there, that would be ideal. Technically, it is finding support at its previous high, and is coming back to test its previous resistance. He suspects this will move higher over the next few months.

The chart is not exactly a trend in stocks. It has quite the lid at $15. It looks like there is some support at $9.50. It is bouncing off it. There are higher highs, but lower lows and now it took out a low, which is a positive development. You could see a rebound to $13 and if that breaks then possibly to $15. He would sell there. It is a choppy chart and not a trend.