23 Stock Top Picks and 5 ETF (Feb 01-07)

He believes they will succeed at streaming. ESPN has lowered their revenues. DIS-N will succeed against NFLX-Q if anyone will. He thinks the move into streaming will tie the stock up for a couple of years. Longer term they will do fine.

This is a great company, he says, with a well-established track record. The price is getting to the point, where you are paying a premium at this level. He would diversify into other holdings as well, ideally through an ETF such as IHI-N

They’ve done an incredible job of transforming their business from 25-26 plants across Canada down to 5-6 and have become much more efficient. Margins have gone up, and at the same time, a few years ago they sold their big position in Canada Bread to a Mexican company and got a lot of cash, so…

Would not be a buyer right now, wait for a pull back, prefers tollbridgers as it is a higher end builder, but he even sold this one a month ago.

(A Top Pick Jun 29/18, Down 4%) A play on household formation in the US. With tax reform last year and with HD-N having plans to increase dividends (maybe over 25% growth), he will continue to hold it.

This is a play on TD continuing to gain market share in the US. He sees the US economy as being better than the Canadian economy, however US economy is still not going gang buster. TD has been able to win market share from the other US banks. It is still early days as far…

Although it always looks expensive it is a great niche little auto company. Very well-managed and very focused. Still a lot of earnings momentum to come.

(Past Top Pick Sept.29, 2017, Up 8%) They sold their majority stake in their Asian insurance business. It does suffer lumpy earnings, but they write profitable insurance. Made a big purchase in Allied World last year. Some of their investments, like the Toronto Star, may or may not work out, but Prem Watsa is a…

He likes the concentration of the specialized real estate holdings – including hospitals, multi-residential, high rises, etc. He sees this as a bond proxy that is better than telcos and utilities.

Income generator. A stable one. It is richly valued. They look for a combination if income and growth.

Both Canadian rails have benefited from a growth in oil by rail. With an economy moderately expanding you have more volume though BC and Chicago. CNR-T is at a historical high vs. CP-T that is trading at a bit of a discount. He sold a bit of CNR-T earlier. Watch CNR-T to see if they…

This offers industrial exposure to international infrastructure. Rather than owning the asset (as Brookfield does), WSP builds it. She prefers WSP to SNC-Lavalin because its income is services related and it doesn’t have the cost-overrun risk that SNC has because of its fixed price bids. She would not buy WSP at this level because it…

It has slid down a bit and is negative for the year, like the market. We are coming up to the seasonally strong period for this sector. If it starts to show support, take another look, perhaps in late November.

Quality name that has gone on sale. Q3 was very strong with improvising efficiencies. They are doing a buy back. Modeling 16% growth with a name trading at 14 times 2019 earnings. If the economy is fine, which it is their base case, this is a name you want to be buying now. (Analysts’ price…

Target price? Great to own for the last 6 years, and one of the best-run airlines in the world. Great performance since late-December. You won't see the same upside this year, but AC remains attractive. It can keep growing by bringing its rewards program in house and using more efficient planes. You could see a…

This is his second biggest holding. He bought it as low as $4 and change. He won’t be buying more at this price but people who buy under a different system, such as a momentum system, might find this attractive. This had a solar arm, which was one of the reasons he bought the company.…

They manage Cloud content for Fortune 500 companies, like helping you look for specific data using AI. Big companies aren't hiring big armies of developers to perform this service, but hiring companies like BOX on a subscription basis--it's cheaper. (0% dividend yield, Analysts' price target: $28.27)

It is a fine company. It is on his watch list. He does not own it because of his concern with regulatory issues. They have so much share of search that it attracts the attention of regulators. He anticipates the separation of YouTube from Google Search and that would not be good. Wait for some…

It hasn't risen above its 2015 high. It must rise above this to $4. The volume has picked up and has had a long, long base. The price has been increasing, so it looks like it may go higher.

He has looked at this company many times. It creates supply chain management software and is very richly valued. There’s a lot of organic growth. The stock has corrected a few times and those offered good buy points.

FANGs? None in the FANG space are good value right now. Amazon has a floor at $1650 and ceiling at $2125 -- with PE ratio of 60. Facebook has given a short term buy signal -- technical support around $187-$189 with 20-25% upside. Nvidia has hit close to full value near $180 -- he might…

Software as a service. It is the strongest sector, period – in the last two years. It makes software that is used to manage workflow such as for companies that provide IT servicing. It is growing rapidly. 35% year over year. They have running room in front of them. (Analysts’ price target is $233.32)

Visa vs. Mastercard He owns Mastercard which has done better than Visa. But both companies are great. Pick one. But you're paying for the growth rate (they are expensive). Trading at 31x earnings. Be careful of sudden drops in stock price.

(A Top Pick July 5/17, Up 6%) Came off hard recently. Emerging markets have become dominated by Asia, ex-Japan. 2 / 3 of the index is now the large China stocks and Korean and Taiwan, like Baidu and Samsung. In the old days emerging used to be “junky resource things,” but this is no longer…

Energy in Brazil. Also commodity related type of economies. Geared to rise and fall very much with the area of energy. Clever way of playing energy and emerging markets at the same time.

He likes the healthcare space. This is a high-quality beta play in the space. Don’t expect it to be super defensive, but thinks global hospital spending will continue to rise.

You buy it once and you don't have to do anything else if you buy it in a registered account. You don't have to think. MER is 18 basis points. Very cheap.

Equal weight indexes is something they like. He likes Europe. The market weight index tends to be lumpy with the large companies in it. Many companies serve in emerging markets. Trades on NEO not on the TSX.