Thomson Reuters Corp (TRI.TO)

They have an outstanding CEO. The deal with Blackstone at 11.5 EBIDTA was expensive. Long term it will be a volatile stock (especially for the next few months) with the company going through transition. At these prices it is getting more interesting. Yield 3.4%.

Hasn't done much in 10 years, though pays a steady dividend. Needs something to get it going. Not excited by it.

The stock popped and then gave it right back. He’d like to see the dividend hiked but that would be a signal they could not grow any more.

Just pulled back because of near-term concerns on upcoming European regulations, but believes that will ultimately create a tailwind as clients need to adapt a system to manage these new regulations. Trading at a 4-year low. He models a 6% EPS growth. They have an active Buy-back. Good balance sheet. Dividend yield of 3.1%. (Analysts’ Price Target is $49.)

Started purchasing this in 2008-2009 during the financial crisis at around $40. It went down to $26, and he averaged clients in. Has had a nice annualized return on this, but wonders how much further it can go. The space they operate in is reasonably mature. While there is always going to be growth in this industry, he isn’t sure it will continue at the rate it has. He is looking for a possible replacement on this. If it headed back up towards $60, he would take a harder look at selling. Dividend yield of 3%+.

Generating a lot of free cash flow, buying back stock and increasing the dividend. The revenue growth is somewhat limited at the moment in various segments. Have done an extremely good job on cost savings, and the margins have been expanding for 2 quarters in a row.

He followed it for 20 years. The company got it right. They saw themselves as not a newspaper company, but as an information company. It has been in a trading range for 15 months, then had a move up. It has a ways to go. It will probably end up breaking out to the upside, but he is unlikely to buy it.

(A Top Pick March 14/17. Down 6%.) *Short* The company has reported twice since this was picked. Reported a very bad 4^th quarter and a reasonably good 1^st quarter. This revolves around the shift to passive investing, and the lack of a market for them to sell their financial products. A very competitive space. Any EPS growth they have is a result of share buybacks.

This is a powerhouse. A well-run company with significant management ownership via Woodbridge. He has a lot of respect for the team. Not a cheap stock. Free cash flow this tear will be a bit lower, primarily due to one-time items. He looks 2-3 years out and the amount of free cash flow they can generate. The free cash flow yield is fair, not great. It gets out to about 6.5%-7% a little farther out. This gives you a healthy dividend and modest share repurchases. They are very good at allocating capital. He would own more at a lower price. A lower risk/high quality business.

*Short* In today’s world this is in the financial data space. They sell terminals that sit on brokers desks. He would consider this as a 2^nd tier product in a space that is under heavy attack. FinTech is something that is proliferating all through the West Coast. The result is that competition is really getting quite intense with new products, better than what this company does. Dividend yield of 3.1%. (Analysts’ price target is $45.)

This has had a reasonable period since the selloff in the global financial crisis. Its clients are effectively all the banks, so looking forward to an environment where the banks are going to start stocking up, because they are going to have higher interest rates, this should be very positive for this company. Great story, but a very slow moving animal.

A terrific company that for the longest time didn’t reward shareholders at all. A few years ago the stock took a 60% uptick, and his fear is that we are going to have another long period of time where it is going to kind of stuck there. Kind of a boring company. Too expensive now. 3.4% dividend yield.

(Market Call Minute.) He would love to call this a Buy but it is a Hold.

A well-managed company. Diversified into electronic delivery of financial and legal information. They have started to get back on a growth path now. With the dividend yield this is worth while holding.

New management has greatly simplified the business and cut a lot of costs. It hasn’t been focused on doing large deals, but focused on improving their very attractive portfolio of companies. In addition, they have also divested businesses that they don’t feel have the same promise over the long-term.