Canadian Utilities, Telus Corp and More at 52-week Highs and Lows (Dec 04-10)

This is effectively a utility and benefited tremendously from the safety trade with bonds coming down from 4.5% to 1.5% 5 years ago. Stock recently dropped because of a rebalancing of portfolios. Expects we will only see higher interest rates for many years and this does not speak well for this company.

Pays a regulated return, though buy on a pullback, and it's done a great job growing. AQN is his favourite in this space.

H.IR-T Investment Receipts. They are tied to Hydro 1. They issued them as part of their US acquisition. It is not clear whether this transaction will actually close. These receipts give you protection in that scenario. You either get shares of H-T or your money back. The price momentum has started to improve on these,…

(A Top Pick Sept 28/11. Up 22.45%.) Getting close to being fully valued and he is starting to Sell it. Has had phenomenal growth and is very conservatively managed. Doesn’t see much upside so is basically holding it for its yield.

(A Top Pick Feb 24/16. Up 51.06%.) A great business for the renewable side of things. This is going to be a long-term growth business. Selecting your entry point is going to be the most difficult part.

Thinks the weakness on this has been the French elections. They have a lot of wind farms in France, and the talk is that, depending on who gets elected, they could be done with the wind farms or any new wind farms. Thinks it is a safe dividend, and they are continuing to grow with…

It's the top-performing Canadian utility yet little known. Has momentum. You're paid a safe, big dividend pl;us modest price growth. It plays into the carbon tax. CPS's assets are gas, wind and solar which are higher-cost commodities to produce, so the carbon tax will hit traditional forms of energy and benefit CPX. He sees a…

It is one of the stocks he owns across his client base. They are trading at a slight discount. The government in the prairies is funding clean energy that benefits CU-T. It is suffering the Alberta oil price.

You can keep holding it. All utilities have done quite well. If it is a big overall position you may want to trim it.

(A Top Pick March 26/15. Up 0.75%.) Their one and only mine is located in Turkey. A lot of people question about investing in Turkey. The company has about US$360 million in the bank, with no debt. Have a line of credit for US$250 million, because they want to expand their play in Turkey to…

Has the largest kimberlite deposit in the world and they continue to expand that asset. Diamond stocks have not been doing well.

This was formerly a closed-end fund of junior resources but changed its method of operations and now has two gold projects in Bulgaria and hope to produce as much as 500,000 ounces in 3 years. Also have exposure in several other junior stocks. Cheap.

Gold assets in West Africa, Ghana and Ivory Coast. Good management. Going into production this year and expected to produce 80,000 ounces in Ghana this year and probably 200,000 next year followed by 278,000. Cash costs expected to be about $450 to $500 an ounce so have a lot of leeway. Will continue to grow…

Has been an investor in this for a long time. They bought a Papua New Guinea project from Barrick (ABX-T) for almost next to nothing. They are about to start producing, and there will be a lift when they go from “no” cash flow to cash flow. He is also hoping that when they get…

Nice solid balance sheet with about $380 million net cash. One of the largest silver producers with about 25,000,000 ounces a year. Not much growth in the short term, but they do have a project Navidad in Argentina, one of the world’s largest undeveloped silver mines. Unfortunately, Argentina is not a place you want to…

Silver is riding coat tails of gold. Thinks of gold and silver in the same vain. In last year, silver moved more than gold. He is bullish on both metals. It is over bought, but every gold stock is.

(A Top Pick Jan 10/06. Up 60%.) Has completed financing and will have 2 mines in production by the end of the summer.

Good properties.

(Market Call Minute.) Deposit looks good, but it hasn't quite the size or the grade that it needs to move forward.

Very early stage. Trying to replicate what they did with Rainy River (RR-X) in finding a large disseminated deposit with narrow high-grade veins.

It's the old Valeant. It has a future, cleaned up their act, but too much debt. Stable now, so maybe good for the long-term, certainly better than the Valeant days.

Canadian Tire. Predominantly leased by Canadian Tire. Continues to be held 80% by Canadian Tire Corp. A sustainable distribution ratio of about 90%. If you look at single tenant REITs, the growth is not as good as a more diversified REIT. They should get 3% AFFO growth. If they developed on their redevelopment acquisitions it…

Dream Office vs. Dream Industrial REIT? Dream has been on a rollercoaster the last four years: overexposed to Alberta, sold Scotia Plaza, trying to diversify within Alberta; onerous management contracts to buy out. They're a work-in-progress with better days ahead. He would lean towards the Industrial REIT, but still expensive though it's outperformed Office REIT,…

This tends to increase dividends in the 3rd quarter, so you should look for one in August. Anything related to the mortgage business is tied to interest rates. Although interest rates have come off currently, he believes their ultimate direction is up. That will put pressure on anybody who is related to that business. He…

(A Top Pick Jan 26/18, Down 2%) Q4 was strong, capping off a great year. They had sector-leading ROE at 18.5%. Still trades at a discount to peers. Earnings will grow 7%, but Canadian debt is a worry. You can buy it now.

A cheap stock that pays a 5.5% yield, It's re-rating higher. They are pivoting away from malls to mixed-use properties with condos on top--high-density buildings. (Analysts’ price target is $27.50)

In a good area Too speculative Watch for new clients

Canada’s newest REIT. He does not think there is a big reason for fear, but was unhappy with the debt level. He is waiting it out to see how it performs. They have top notch management. This is very similar to ACQ-T, but you own the real estate of the dealerships. 10.6% yield.

Canadian Tire. Predominantly leased by Canadian Tire. Continues to be held 80% by Canadian Tire Corp. A sustainable distribution ratio of about 90%. If you look at single tenant REITs, the growth is not as good as a more diversified REIT. They should get 3% AFFO growth. If they developed on their redevelopment acquisitions it…

Real estate is mostly in Quebec, a stable market, and Montreal is seeing an uptick. They own shopping meals. He likes it. Great dividend. They have new and better management.

There was a strategic review by management for potentially selling the company, but nothing came of that. There was some turnover with the CEO. The big issue is when it initially came to the market, it had very significant exposure to Magna (MG-T), which was their largest tenant. However, it had a pristine balance sheet.…

They are doing a good job. It has broken above its 50 day moving average. The trend is in a non-aggressive down trend. It is near the top of its channel.

This has medical office buildings in other parts of the world like Brazil, Australia, New Zealand. There are a lot of cross currency issues. Has a relatively high payout ratio. He prefers other names in terms of risk/reward.

Despite the recent disappointing earnings, he continues to like holding it. A recent acquisition was quite sizable and he thinks this will allow earnings growth to continue. It may become a good take-over target and he likes the business model.

Great company. They have been the quality act in the funds business. He has a soft spot for them as they were the very first client when he started in business in 1993. ETFs are putting them under pressure. Fees are coming down. It is not a growth business anymore. Their writing is a little…

(A Top Pick Jun 12/18, Down 2%) He bought it when Desmarais died and expected his heirs to inject fresh ideas. The NAV is now far ahead of the stock price. Still owns it, getting a nice 5.75% dividend. There are small signs that management is trying to make investors happier, but falling rates is…

Has been a little weak lately. Made an acquisition of Century Property. Has a management arrangement with Starlight (?) but he would prefer a better management agreement but it is a really good source for small company acquisitions. 7.83% yield.

Pipelines are scarce. ENB runs the key pipeline from western Canada to the U.S. They move 66% of all Canadian oil and 22% of natural gas in North America. It yields 5.9% with a plan to grow it 10% annually. The stock has been sluggish, but is getting back into gear. (Analysts’ price target is…

This is not performing as poorly as the crude oil complex, because it does not have exposure to production. The short term chart is neutral. It probably attracts a lot of dividend seekers. The longer-term chart shows an overhead supply from 2013 to 2015, but is now struggling. There should be resistance at $16-$17 and…

This has done an incredible job of production and getting their costs down. We have a real use of natural gas for electricity air conditioning generation across North America, so gas prices are up. This is not the day that you want to buy gas stocks.

This one has gone sideways for about the past 5 years. Although there are no barriers to entrance into their business, they are the largest auctioneer of industrial equipment globally. Thinks they are larger than the next 50 competitors combined. There is about $200 billion of used equipment that transacts every year but they only…

(A Top Pick Jan 22/16. Up 34.16%.) A very solid, stable company. The original business was pension benefits, but have also expanded into employees’ system programs which is growing. They’ve acquired some contracts in the US and thinks there are good opportunities for acquisitions there. He still likes this. They’ve retained 97%-98% of their customers.…

CP-T earnings have improved with revenues up in all their businesses. He holds CNR-T instead. He would not buy more at these valuations. If you are playing the oil by rail strategy, he would prefer CNR-T as it has more incremental market opportunity as it ships south into the US. He is not adding adding…

They have operations in US and Canada. They were growing good in US with the housing market. They bought a company in the US with a construction division, which comes with lower margins. It is a well managed company and with the infrastructure spending in both US and Canada, he would continue to hold it.

This is on his focus Buy list. Provide connectivity solutions in the telecommunications area. Have about $.20 per share in cash. Has over 50% growth year over year in earnings. Cheap.

He sold out a few months ago. The recent selloff has prompted some shareholder resentment and a call for strategic alternatives. The latest quarterly earnings were disappointing. There was discussion of a US acquisition, but he feels it may be a lower margin one. He does not know how they will change the momentum.

Like it. Could have bought Corus Entertainment. Relatively low growth but a safe dividend.

(A Top Pick Dec 11/17, Up 21%) Pays over 7% dividend. This stock could really go. They own little surgical hospitals and outpatient clinics. They have a deal where doctors own the real estate and manage, while they share in the profits with DR. A very good model

Very bullish on this stock. Has a lot of cash. A good price.

It is interesting in the way they have transitioned their business to cultivation. It is on his radar. It has some possibilities down the road.

One of the 39 marijuana licensed producers. Has a small operation on Vancouver Island. Also, has property on the mainland and the goal is to build a new facility there and get it licensed. A new licensed facility, gets them into the Health Canada queue a lot faster. This company flies under the radar right…

This was heavily weighted towards natural gas. Management has been doing a great job of divesting non-core assets. Thinks there debt to cash flow is still around 6 or 7 times making them more sensitive to a decrease in the price of natural gas. Thinks there will be a wave of selling in some of…

Not producing uranium as yet, but it does have a large land mass. The properties they own are very similar to the Athabascan. Extremely speculative at this point. Would prefer owning a company that is currently producing.

This was one of the first royalty plays. Now that the pension funds have bought into the PrairieSky (PSK-T) business model, they understand the royalty play, and he thinks this will start to move. Reserve life on the proven is seven years. Yield of 11.62%. (Careful on this. They quoted a 11.62% yield a couple…

Exploration company and development. Canadian energy stocks have done extremely badly, so people have gone international, such as this company. Thinks there’s another 50% upside for 08. Good management. Own about 15% of the company.

Last November he did a site visit in Argentina and it was the biggest site visit he ever saw. The lithium sector was hot, but now there's a fear that it might be well-supplied because SQM in Chile is now allowed to produce at a much higher volume than before. The Chinese are now partnering…

Zinc in Utah. This could go into production by itself. We could see this thing scale bigger in terms of tonnage. There is a lot more to be found. It is in an area where there are reduced environmental objection, just south of the Military testing grounds over the Salt Flats.

Have a really interesting property in Surinam. His impression is they are onto something very significant. Not a lot of shares out.

Scandium makes aluminum special. It makes it stronger and corrosion resistant. It is also very workable, so it competes very well against other alloys. We are a couple of weeks away from the feasibility study and an environmental impact statement. Hopefully, there will be a mining permit in 6 months. Looking for production in 2018.…

Has a phosphate/titanium deposit in Québec so this is the right geographic region. The grades are nice and the continuity is nice. However, it is a small company that needs to do more work to get their deposit developed. They have to go through studies. There is a feasibility study that is coming in the…

Lithium. Has a very interesting and attractive deposit in Argentina. It is the most economical form of lithium. It is not hard rock, so there are not a lot of costs and they can do this economically. Higher risk/high potential return. Management is first-class.

Missed their production targets by over promising and under delivering. Still has great confidence in management and think they can get on top of the problems. Good silver projects.

Located in Quebec and put out a recent drill hole didn't see that they have a large disseminated deposit. However, they are very serious about mining and you are interested in small-scale mining in Quebec, it is all right. Would try to switch into something else at some point.

Have some good indications that the zones go deeper than before and the grades are pretty good. New management team and getting good support and is getting noticed.

This is in the business of catering, in part, to the US military. They clean their equipment, and have won some big contracts. So they have a good customer that is always going to pay. Starting to get traction now, but don’t put a lot of your portfolio in penny stocks right now. It is…

Uses plasma torches at extremely high temperatures operating in a vacuum. They can use this to burn up bad chemicals as well as being able to reclaim a lot of aluminum from dross. They are doing a ton of work on the military side, including a process to burn up stuff on US aircraft carriers.…

Not that liquid, so put in bids but don’t chase it. Look at this in 4 months. They are doing a massive financing, and that is 4 months held paper. In 4 months it comes off restrictions and there will be much more stock available. The company basically helps brands market their goods. For example…

They are sound financially and always have been. They are hurting from foreign competition. Same store sales are down and they are trying to manage the decline. He would not step in here. Even a good management team is struggling.

Just went public in June. Plays into same space as CGI. Small minnow in big pond, but very smart. Built business on acquisitions. Interesting, because they're picking out smaller and mid-size, and they have a long runway.

Small tech name in Canada. Come back from the dead. Building in the hot areas like 5G. A small company, not expensive, underloved. Will have to ride through volatile times. No dividend. (Analysts’ price target is $6.00)