Ericsson LM Telephone (ERIC-Q)

It spent a lot on 5G and it will take several years to realize the return on this. The company has been disappointing.

Europe was more advanced than Canada until 2000s in terms of telecommunications. Now that Europe has lowered the cost of consumer phones, there was a lull and under investment in the network in Europe. There will be continuing development with towers for wireless activities and 5G. Political concerns with Huawei will help Ericsson. Optical equipment grow quickly and then stagnates.

Up from its lows. He stays away from hardware producers, as it's hard to differentiate products except for Apple. Issue of timing. Huawei is still a serious player. Hardware is traditionally a hard business to make money in.

Along with Nokia, an alternative to Huawei. Just rolled out 5G in Slovenia. Tons of investment opportunity in the sector. Yield is 0.64%. (Analysts’ price target is $12.13)

Product probably inferior to Huawei, which will continue to grow. The question is who will be competition of Cisco in other markets. Ericsson could benefit structurally from the Five Eyes alliance. He's not a buyer here. A lot depends on whether the Democrats get the keys to the White House and want to continue with the China ban on technology.

Nokia vs. Ericsson These companies have come into their own since the US government has pressured other government to not use Huawei for their 5G networks. Ericsson has done well in 5G. Nokia made an acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent that was difficult to pull off but has since gotten a lot better. Nokia will do a little better than Ericsson. Nokia has new management.

5G deployment is a key theme for him right now. NOK and CSCO are others in the space. He much prefers ERIC overall -- he thinks it could go to $12 per share.

vs. AMD? A tough call. AMD is more a trading stock. ERIC is long-term. Both are in chips and especially 5G deployment which will play out over time. He picks ERIC.