26 Stock Top Picks and 3 ETF (Dec 7-13)

MRU-T vs. EMP.A-T. Metro has been his favourite grocery stock for 15 years. Grocery are the stay-at-home stocks but as we exit the pandemic this is not where you want to be. Don’t buy until the rotation is completed.

For tax-loss selling? It's disappointed the market. But it's time to look at it. They should take the company private; the share price is so low, so disastrous since its IPO. Existing owners could buy it all back. Overall, retailing is a difficult space now.

They are one of the largest pawn shop operators in the US and Latin America. They have a counter-cyclical business. As their inventory builds, this will be a good name to hold.

An outlier in Canadian banking, a small regional player. They're cleaning house among management and trimming costs, but that's tricky because they're hemmed into one region, Quebec. LB is trying to go entirely virtual; LB has a lot of physical branches and moving hard to virtual. This dramatic change has effected their business. New managers…

It's a lot more competitively priced than Royal. It trades at 1.4x book and pays a safe dividend over 4.5%. He expects growth in the coming years. The banks have been unable to raise dividends, but that's likely to change if the recovery takes hold.

Likes banks in general. TD is on the upper end of price. Likes the good price momentum, reasonable multiple, and return of reserves. The rising yield curve is good for the banks. Mortgage rates have started to go back up again. Payout ratio is good, earnings are good. US exposure is a positive right now.…

Thinks of best business first, and then country second. His clients own National Bank, TD, RY, and JPM. Best banks with the best management teams. Jaime Dimon at JPM is the very best. In Canada, his favourite is always National, with smart acquisitions and growing in wealth management. All Canadian banks are under-levered. You have…

(A Top Pick Feb 02/21, Up 18.6%)Stockchase Research Editor: Michael O'Reilly Our PAST TOP PICK with GS is progressing well. We are now recommending trailing up the stop (from $280) to $320. This would all but ensure a minimum investment return of 16%.

(A Top Pick Dec 07/18, Up 66%) Nobody wanted to buy British stocks. Around 60% of Halma's revenues come outside the UK, so they're paid in other currencies as the pound falls--profits then rise. They make smoke alarms/detectors. Strong long-term potential, though no one has heard of it. Dividend is growing 17% annually. But earnings…

(A Top Pick Nov 11/19, Down 17%) Their revenues and earnings will be up this year. Airlines are relying on government assistance to survive. They won't be able to get new planes after the pandemic and so AL-N will benefit as they will have to lease.

Waiting to buy more around $95. Has long owned this. They treat water, which is a scarce resource. Developing countries are still building water infrastructure, while developed countries are upgrading or replacing that. This is a long-term hold. This is a strong ESG stock.

Like Home Depot, SWK is still worth buying home improvement stocks like this despite a big run-up. People will continue to spend on their homes, seeing it as an investment, not as an expense.

(A Top Pick Dec 07/18, Up 36%) A volatile stock, but he likes the golds, holding 10-20% in a portfolio. Gold has a long runway.

Very high quality with no issues on the balance sheet. Own it for its yield at 6.1% with a reasonable payout ratio. Low volatility. A bond replacement. Hold for the yield.

Net short due to overall lagging price momentum and valuation. Good yield but heavy on the debt side and missed on earnings. Expensive at 15x EBITDA. A hedge against other long positions. Yield is quite large and will not be going away.

(A Top Pick Mar 04/20, Up 21%) He'll own this for a long time and will still buy it in the low-30s. They increased their dividend last year and for the last 30 years or so. Super management enduring in a tough environment. Managers focus on free cash flow.

Headwinds when demands fall off. Average at best. He prefers companies with better pricing and opportunities to invest cashflows. When buying just for the dividend, bad things can happen.

He owns it on behalf of an investor. These are difficult projects to get approved. He thinks in the end they will get the green light on the current project. This will be incremental to their valuation and earnings. Write-down's on assets are usually backwards looking so he does not pay a lot of attention…

(A Top Pick Jan 17/20, Up 14%) An easy hold. Great visibility. Managed care. Commercial health insurance, plus one of the key administrators of Medicare and Medicaid. Enjoys bipartisan support. Underlying businesses are doing great.

He's recemmended this before. They're hitting their stride. They announced today an acquisition in Florida which should be accretive to earnings and EBITDA. It's good, because PMH enters a new region. The stock will continue to grow by acquisition, then grow by organic growth by bringing their existing services and products to expand the market.…

(A Top Pick Mar 15/19, Down 24%) He still holds it in the portfolio, but had taken some out at $4 per share. He is looking to add to the cannabis sector again following the consolidation. He holds an $8.25 target. They are producing a CBD and THC beverage.

Take a pill once a week instead of injecting. Big implications moving forward. International sales have gone beyond what US sales were. Good entry point for the next 5-10 years. May get more diversified over time. No debt outstanding. Yield is 1.45% (Analysts’ price target is $75.73)

Pays a decent dividend and trades around 19x PE. It will benefit when 5G comes along. There's a lot of money for broadband growth coming as we transition to 5G networks. Not a pricey stock, but he sees more growth in software stocks. CSCO will do better though given 5G.

(A Top Pick Mar 12/20, Up 80%) He's owned this for a long time. Azure and 365 are doing incredibly well, which helps LinkedIn. He expects good margin growth, and cloud computing will continue to grow aggressively. Remote working depend on the cloud, for example. Data that MSFT collects from clients can apply to virtual…

(A Top Pick Dec 14/18, Up 109%) Makers of screen technology out of Idaho. Their technology shortened the width of the screen, which allowed manufacturers to add more technology in the same phone body. He sold out at $207. It will give another opportunity to buy in, but there is more competition coming.

(A Top Pick Mar 10/20, Up 5%) Inexpensive at 14x earnings. Earnings have grown at 13%. A secular grower. 600 open jobs right now that are work from anywhere jobs which opens up the talent pool. Great innovator and a great consolidator. Continues to buy it here.

(A Top Pick Dec 12/18, Up 15%) Linked to the UN Sustainable Goal: educational, healthcare, food, sanitation companies. Lots of exposure to emerging markets with only 35% US exposure. This will do well along with the world ex-US.

(A Top Pick Dec 12/18, Up 17%) An ETF that tracks the S&P minus fossil fuels and weapons. Strongly correlates the S&P with slight outperformance. You get market returns and do good.

He wants liquidity to be able to take advantage of continued volatility going into 2019. This pays about 2% yield. Think of it as cash. It is an option to step in and do some buying later.