Laurentian Bank

LB-T

(A Top Pick Jul 30/18, Down 1%) LB isn't far from its valuation. Quebec is the strongest province, fiscally. LB struggles because it had mortgage accounting issues, which hasn't faded yet. He sees good potential and still holds it.

When things turn for a small cap, things can get ugly. LB has trouble growing--head office troubles, mortgage troubles. Buy a big Canadian bank instead. Avoid this.

A weak regional bank plagued with operational problems. It won't match the dividend growth of the big banks. This has "value trap" written all over it. Buy one of the big 5 instead.

Tempting here. Super nice dividend. Trading extremely cheap at 0.7 time book. But last quarter they largely missed. Contraction of the consumer loan portfolio. ROE at 8% is anemic for a Canadian Bank. Many problems are self inflicted. 60% payout ratio is high for a Canadian Bank (others are at 45%). Riskier name. He wouldn't buy it until earnings start to stabilize.

They've had issues with mortgage lending and loan portfolio in the past few quarters. But others, like RY (that he owns) offer a good 4.5% dividend and offer a lot less risk.

The smaller the bank, the more it'll get hurt in a recession. Go big in banks.

LB vs. NB He prefers NB. LB is a lot smaller. You're comparing a regional bank vs. a full-service bank. NB participates in national markets and exposure to business banking.

The juicy dividend sticks out. He thinks it is safe, but you have to be able to stomach some volatility. Their business lines are concentrated on the Canadian consumer, vs. BNS-T, which is international. The dividend is safe but it could have a 20% correction from here. It is not a screaming buy although the yield is tough to replace.

LB hasn't followed the big Canadian banks. It's been sideways for many years. It's been a definite downtrend since late 2017. Recently, it looks like it's breaking the downtrend, which is positive. Now, the chart looks good. He's okay with it.

If he was going to buy a bank it would be this. He's seeking dividend companies. He bought it in December at $39.56 with a 6.6% dividend. It has a good chance of rising above $50 again. Since then, he has bought more. But he wouldn't buy--or sell--it at today's price, though.

(A Top Pick Mar 26/18, Down 1%) He bottom-picked this, but LB didn't produce the upside he expected. They've had trouble cutting labour costs. But he's confident they'll resolve this and continue to digitize their branches. Pays a good dividend. You may need to sit on this longer. He reduce his shares, but still owns it.

Smaller-tier Canadian bank. Don't fool around, own one of the top-quality banks instead. Declining loan growth, issues with mortgages, which impacted the balance sheet, and it's in the penalty box. Earnings are not growing at the moment. Sell, and buy National or TD or any of the others.

It is a much more domestic bank. The yield is higher than CM-T and banks don’t typically cut their yields. The problem is if this company can grow. You are buying this purely for the income. Are there better growth opportunities elsewhere? The yield is good.

Really cheap. In the last 20-25 years of history for that he has for this company only a couple of times it's been at this level. And subsequently it did very well. Best yield of the banks. What is not to like about it?

It is the only bank in North America with a unionized work force (37% of it). They are trying to come to an agreement so they can have more online services to customers. The other banks that are non-unionized have more flexibility. The valuation is cheap but so is CM-T. You could own LB-T but he prefers the other ones.