26 Stock Top Picks and 3 ETF (Dec 14-20)

Dead money for a couple of months? Great run, fully priced. Screens for iPhones, TVs, and laptops. With virtual reality a trend, it's getting into headsets. King of the hill on technology, no lack of demand. To add, do it in thirds at $200-205, $190, and in the $180s. (Analysts’ price target is $209.00)

Very trendy stock. What the markets wants right now - despite valuation. Would wait for weakness before buying. 

After delivering a blow-out quarter in August, shares jumped 33%. Then they just announced another strong quarter, beating top and bottom and delivering excellent guidance and raising their full-year forecast.

Trades at 30x earnings, but it's warranted. Part of a duopoly, and has branched out into analytic services from its core business. Benefits from switching from cash to digital. Huge moat. There will always be regulatory risk. Happy to hold.

He sold covered calls on Wednesday to ride high volatility. He did it to add some hedging as well as cash flow.

(A Top Pick Sep 01/20, Up 56.4%)Stockchase Research Editor: Michael O'Reilly Our PAST TOP PICK with PE has resulted in the company being acquired by Pioneer Natural Resources. We are considering the position now closed at the last market closing price of $16.93. Combined with the previous recommendation to cover 50%, the total return on…

The best valuation opportunities are in Canada, he thinks. He would sell WPX for the tax loss and buy Parsley instead, who has better exposure to Canada.

Take the tax loss? Huge disappointment, not operationally but on the share price. Typifies an out-of-favour stock:  Canadian mid-cap with hair on it. Last quarter had no hair, beat expectations, paid down debt, generated lots of free cash, bought back stock. Deep value, mispriced, too cheap to sell. He's waiting, but patience is being tested.

Bought 9 years ago around $14. Pretty healthy yield of 6.9%, which is why most investors own it. Good exposure to economic wells in the Duvernay. You need a catalyst for investors to see your company in a different light. Daring to dream that oil gets to $80 in a year and a bit, share…

Owns shares, and has suffered share price depreciation. Europe pricing very hard on business. Company is going to have to re-evaluate Europe assets. Better options in the energy sector for investors. 

Company too small to hit institutional radar screens. Quality company, but better options in markets. 

Does not own shares - prefers Enbridge. However, company is overall a great business. Recent Southbow spin out has left company as a pure gas company. Very good assets - hard to replicate. 

They're in northeast BC where Tourmaline is consolidating land and assets, near LXE. So, LXE will become topical. LXE has reached an inflection point after acquiring a lot of land and pushed the Montney play to the northeast. Now, they need a lot of capital to move to full development. They're talking to potential buyers,…

He did a put spread on May 2, the 500-520 end of July put spread. He wasn't concerned about NVDA or tech, but to the market's reaction broadly to Nividia's earnings. Rally broadening in the S&P had not happened. You're limiting your downside with a spread. He bought back the 500 put, which leads him…

(A Top Pick Jul 31/24, Down 1.95%) It is near its support zone so he has it as a potential trade in their aggressive account. He has a tight stop at $91.75 so if it goes below that for three or more days then he will sell at a 2 or 3% loss. The idea…

Tilted portfolios towards developed and emerging international. Best returns will come from here.

Good for marijuana exposure. Speculative, but quality. 

Fantastic company. Leader in diet boom. Very high valuation - would recommend buying on weakness. 

Would prefer over TD bank. Excellent business that is rock sold. Very strong balance sheet. Excellent brand name in Canada. 

(A Top Pick Dec 04/19, Up 13%) He'd buy it again. Nice value stock. Nice yield. Trading at discount to book. Would benefit from rising interest rates, which he expects. Cheaper than all the banks.

(A Top Pick Dec 20/18, Up 30%) A mid-cap specialty insurer. It can charge higher premiums as it is in niche markets. Their investing was very successful and they had lower insurance payouts.

(A Top Pick Oct 06/23, Up 20%) Is tied to interest rates. Long rates have rebounded lately. A very well-managed company with 51 straight years of raising their dividend. It will remain a core position.

(A Top Pick Jan 29/24, Up 22%) QB2 will be a very valuable asset. Always bumps getting a new mine underway, but outlook for copper long term is very positive. Biggest risk to portfolios is that inflation eats your money, so you need to own things that can put up prices tomorrow if inflation goes…

Trevor Rose’s Insights - Trevor’s most-liked answers from 5i Research We think MAG fits the bill. Its Mexican (safe) mine only recently went into production, and 2024 will be the first year of material revenue/cash flow for the company. The stock is acting well this year as it gets re-rated as a producer. It is…

Close to a bottom, but too early still before an upturn. Swing factor for earnings will be commodity price for potash, and he doesn't see this coming back to sustained supply/demand balance in the medium term. BHP's new production will add ~10% more supply, keeping prices under pressure.

It is going pretty well and there it is basically a duopoly. Protectionism and domestication is good for transportation including railways and trucking. The multiple is a little high but it is a solid blue chip.

Always likes to have a pick for people looking for income. Gives you a bit of opportunity for growth and income for a very long  time. Very diversified, global. Payout ratio is quite reasonable, so a safety play for income. Yield is 4.6%. (Analysts’ price target is $52.06)

It's underperformed UPS, but shares have recovered a lot this year due to new management. Merging fleet and air operations helped by lowering costs. They have problems with overseas margins. Prefers Cargojet.

(A Top Pick Jun 30/21, Up 12%) He trimmed a lot of his shares recently. It's a turnaround story, having brought in new managers doing a good job. He's seen many companies in auto supplies run into supply chain shortages--demand is there, but not supply, so this is a near-term risk. Long term still looks…