Laurentian Bank (LB.TO)

(Top Pick June 17/14, Up 5.46%) He is happy with this one and still likes it. The balance sheet has continued to rise nicely not making the company any more expensive than last time. He wants to stay with it. It is his favourite Canadian bank because it is the cheapest of the lot. When you look at the downside risks under catastrophic conditions he sees only a 20% downside risk. It has the best dividend yield. 4.5% yield.

(A Top Pick June 17/14. Up 1.71%.) Its balance sheet has caught up with its price, and has been trading above one of his technical support levels based on its BV. Very, very cheap. If banks ever take off, this one has to move because it is the best value of the lot. Dividend yield of 4.5%.

Very regional bank. Thinks they are more of a pure bank and do not have a lot of exposure to the oil price.

Being one of the smaller banks, it is not one that people spend a lot of time on, which is possibly why it is always sold at a significant discount to the others. However, they are also a much more constrained in their market and in the outlook to expand earnings. When he looks at the projections, he doesn’t see the kind of growth in earnings that people are looking for. In compensation for that, you are taking a much higher dividend yield. If that is what you are holding it for, it is not a bad place to be.

Stock is cheap and has a nice dividend yield of 4.42%. It is cheaper than all the other banks by a massive amount. Also, it is not as profitable as the rest of the banks, but you are making up for that by paying a huge discount. It has the most upside potential of the 8 Canadian banks. This is one that you just put in your portfolio and forget about it.

Thinks we are going to see some slowing growth in dividend increases in Canadian banks. Feels the regulators are really starting to clamp down on Canadian banks, and we are going to see more stringent capital requirements. Dividend yield of over 4% is attractive.

Short. A Pairs trade going Long on Callidus Capital (CBL-T). He put this one on just to hedge some financial risk. Nothing against the bank, it’s just that they have the smallest capital markets group, so if markets go up, this is the least likely to participate. It also takes off some market risk for him.

There is not a Canadian bank that he would buy at this time. If you were to look at one, maybe this would be it. Feels they are all pretty highly valued overall. The US financials are of far greater interest to him and going forward he thinks they are going to do far better.

The Quebec election did not go Separatist, but firmly decided to stay in Confederation. That has helped all the Quebec-based companies. Has nice upside potential to about $75. A better than average yield, in the banking sector of about 4.22%.

(Market Call Minute.) He would prefer the senior banks.

Considerably off the highs. It is more likely that we come back to 52 week lows before making new highs. Need at least a 5-7% market correction.