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

Opinion about OLED-Q: 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…

Opinion about NTNX-Q: Very trendy stock. What the markets wants right now - despite valuation. Would wait for weakness before buying. 

Opinion about CSCO-Q: A cornerstone company in tech, but there's huge competition in tech and Cisco remain one step behind. Are better companies.

Opinion about V-N: Reliable name. Vast network, trusted brand, unmatched scale. Move from cash to digital payments. Consumer spending remains pretty solid in US. Cross-border transactions remain strong. Pretty capital light, which means very strong free cashflows. About 13% annual growth rate, paying a slight premium for the name. Recently bounced off 200-day MA very nicely,…

Opinion about AAPL-Q: Has incredible gross margins. They just reported a fine quarter, but tariffs in China didn't help. The street perceives that as the last great quarter, so shares fell. Apple is trying to move production from China to India but who know how long it will take. Services revenue disappointed and a monopoly…

Opinion about PE-N: (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…

Opinion about WPX-N: 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.

Opinion about BTE-T: (A Top Pick Apr 02/24, Down 56%) Drawdown 100% connected to price of oil. More debt than average. Risk-off market. Totally fine on liquidity. Deep value, but needs oil at $65-70 to really start humming.

Opinion about WCP-T: Trevor Rose’s Insights - Trevor’s most-liked answers from 5i Research Production of 179,051 b/d rose 5.5% and beat estimates  of 174,000. Crude production rose 5.6%; NG liquids production rose 14%; gas production rose 2.7%. EPS of 27c did miss estimates of 39c; Revenue of $942M beat estimates of $876M. Guidance will be…

Opinion about VET-T: (A Top Pick Mar 15/24, Down 37%) Lately they've had success in exploration in Germany, but near-term capex to exploit that is questionable. Are hard hit, now trading at half their book value. Are paying a near-6% dividend. He's held on. He may use VET as a source of funds, but otherwise…

Opinion about SGY-T: Trevor Rose’s Insights - Trevor’s most-liked answers from 5i Research SGY is quite small at $510M, but the stock is very cheap. With a 10% dividend, a buyer (or privatization) could eliminate the dividend and use internal cash flow to pay for the whole company in about three years. But, that doesn't…

Opinion about TRP-T: Defensive. Pays a 4.8% dividend. Natural gas demand will endure. No tariff worries. Data centres need power, and he doubts tariffs will impact Canadian energy supply. (Analysts’ price target is $71.18)

Opinion about LXE-X: 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…

Opinion about SPY-N: SPY is the oldest and the biggest. Buy more, hold forever. Starting to be overtaken by VOO, perhaps because of the slight difference in MER cost. Worthwhile contacting the ETF company itself for a tax opinion on which account is best to hold it in.

Opinion about TLT-Q: The yield has been flat in the last two years though shares have been volatile with the bond market. The bond market is broken long term as a buy-and-hold; you have to be an active bond manager given inflation's impact.

Opinion about XEC-T: Tilted portfolios towards developed and emerging international. Best returns will come from here.

Opinion about WEED-T: Good for marijuana exposure. Speculative, but quality. 

Opinion about LLY-N: The more successful of the GLP-1 stocks compared to NVO. Decent entry point. Trades in the 30s on forward PE, so there's a strong expectation of prescription growth; every reason to believe that's going to happen. Be cautious on position size; don't be aggressive. Stock was down 10% yesterday because NVO made a…

Opinion about RY-T: (A Top Pick Mar 15/24, Up 27%) RY is the least-exposed bank exposed to tariffs. Good. Volatilty in capital markets benefits RY's cap markets division. The dividend is reasonable and now trades at a premium valuation in this sector, but this is deserved.

Opinion about PWF-T: (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.

Opinion about AFG-N: (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.

Opinion about FTS-T: At 52-week high, safe haven from Trump's antics? Everybody's been crowding into what's been working. Bond proxy, not too challenged by Trump tariffs. Great long-term compounder. Raises dividend every year, by ~5%. Good long-term growth. Q4 beat. Steady player, without all the ups and downs.One knock is that it's only growing 5%,…

Opinion about TECK.B-T: They dropped their coal business to become a pure metals play. The company has changed. They're pulled down along with industrials, given tariffs. Now is a buying opportunity. He might add to his holding.

Opinion about MAG-T: 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…

Opinion about NTR-T: World's largest crop-nutrient business. Upstream production is vertically integrated with downstream retail. Gamechanger for him is that commodity price has bottomed for potash, nitrogen, and phosphate. Cash crop commodity prices are also slowly improving. Management changes. Operational changes to improve profitability. Trading at 1.1x book. Good luck tariffing potash, as the US produces…

Opinion about CP-T: Are hurt by the trade war; volumes will decline. CP is more exposed to cars crossing the US border. Buying KC was a great strategy. The rails have never been this cheap, so this will do well in 5 years. Just painful to hold now. A quality company with strong pricing power. 

Opinion about BIP.UN-T: Has a global footprint. If you have a TFSA or RRSP, you can buy the partnership units and receive the same dividend as on the corporate units but at a 25% discount--a good value in those accounts. Good dividend growth ahead, paying 5.59% now. (Analysts’ price target is $54.90)

Opinion about FDX-N: But this dip now or wait for their report The CEO is doing a fine job in a very difficult time with all these tariffs. A very good company though can't advise buying a stock that went up 10% today [note: the wider market was up 10% too].

Opinion about UNS-T: (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…