Daily Stock Opinions and Ratings

Opinions

Michael Sprung Western Financial Group Inc. WES-T PAST TOP PICK Mar 16, 2007

(A Top Pick Nov 14/06. Up 15.8%.) Continuing to do well. Just reported 65% profits. Starting to get noticed by analysts.

Michael Sprung

Owned

Unlock Rating

$4.250

Stock price when the opinion was issued

insurance

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BUY ON WEAKNESS

Likes this stock very much. Starting to get coverage from the larger firms now. Western Bank is no longer a drag on their earnings. Western Life is making money for them and still has opportunities to expand their agency network. Prefers to buy under $5.

PAST TOP PICK

(Top pick Nov 14/06. Up 56%) Has a lot of perceived rapid growth a head of it. Happy to hold onto it.

BUY

Likes this one quite a bit. Stock price has come off because of the general slowdown in the economy and the other financial stocks. The bank they started a few years ago was a drag on earnings, but is no longer. Their insurance company is profitable. Continuing to expand their agency network throughout the west. Well positioned. Just shored up their balance sheet with another convertible preferred about a month ago. 6.7% yield.

SELL

Not a big fan of this one. His key metric is return on equity or return on capital. This one doesn't have a great track record of earning good returns on capital. Strategy tends to be all over the map.

SELL

Not a big fan of this one. Not as focused on ROE as Canadian Western Bank (CWB-T) only 100 miles north.

TOP PICK

Have a chain of insurance agencies through the West. Also have life insurance and general insurance companies as well as a small bank, which has been holding them back. Expecting a solution of this in the next year. Reported earnings today that were in line with expectations.

SELL

There are about 30 small financial companies that are fantastic. This is not one of them. 10-year track record on Return on Capital has been terrible. Would prefer Canadian Western Bank (CWB-T) or Home Capital (HCG-T).

SELL

ROE has perennially been very low around 6%-7%. Also they do one dilutive financing after another.

PAST TOP PICK

(A Top Pick March 17/10. Up 27.13%.) Desjardins is acquiring them.

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Michael Sprung Western Financial Group Inc. WES-T PAST TOP PICK Mar 16, 2007

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