Earning Reports to Watch (Feb 04-08)

Doesn’t own dual class share companies, but this one has been an amazing growth story. Incredibly successful. If he didn’t have an issue with dual class shares, he might actually buy this. It is unbelievable to him that in an industry which is low growth, they have made some great acquisitions and they cover all…

Has built a gorgeous base. Broke through its trend line. No news on it which he likes.

It has been a story where he looked at it a year or so ago. It is a bit expensive on a multiple basis but someone will probably come along and take it out in the future. He would hold it if you own it. They try to make acquisitions of smaller brands from time…

Will be a takeover.

There is fierce competition in the entire food sector.

They have a done a good job of growing their footprint internationally. They got caught up in the Canada/China disputes. The issue is the high multiple. If demand changes the stock will get crushed. It is high risk / high reward. He would not go after this.

Hasn’t looked at this in a while. Prior to this year it has been doing very well. He has very little exposure to consumer staples. Would prefer being in more cyclical areas such as financials, consumer discretionaries or technology. Technically he doesn’t find the stock very exciting. Fundamentally, it’s trading at around 20X earnings with…

Music on your cable box. They put up a good quarter recently and raised their dividend. There is insider trading. It is going to become a street darling. It is somewhat illiquid. (Analysts’ target: $10.00).

A controversial stock and maybe one that people don’t pay much attention to anymore, because it fell on such hard times. Have been undergoing a major transformation of shifting from print to digital. More than 50% of their business is now digital. Trading at a very, very low valuation multiple. Some risk, but a lot…

Just reported an unbelievable quarter. No analyst follows it. 70% of revenues are from the US yet 70% of operations are in Canada so the declining CAD$ benefits them. Earnings should accelerate over the next few years. You probably have not missed the run. The CAD$ has only helped them over the last couple of…

They have a Caterpillar franchise out west and are in Latin America. They have a facility where they remanufacture Caterpillar parts. If you think there are legs left in the mining cycle you could add to it.

His model price is $27.69, 46% higher than the current price, but the stock’s technicals are giving a sell signal and the earnings estimates have been crashing. Since 2010, the stock has hit this level three times and done fantastically after that. He would buy a little bit here but would not buy more until…

We're in the early innings of automation. ATA supplies this to and consults the energy, healthcare, industrial and maufacturing industries. ATA is in the thick of it. Stricter regulations in these industries demands precision that's found in automation. ATA has fine management. They've been on a buying spree. Their chart is very bullish and the…

Recession-proof. It's priced fairly and pays a growing dividend. Various projects on four continents drive growth. He sees 15% EPS growth. It's not cheap at 13x, but the dividend will continue to grow. Buy on pullbacks. (Analysts’ price target is $60.65)

Finning (FTT-T) or Toromont (TIH-T) for long-term growth and dividends? This area is a little tough right now. Industrial equipment has been pretty beaten up in the last few weeks. He would prefer Finning, which has the oil Sands in Alberta as well as South America where they have a ton of mining. Toromont more…

(A Top Pick March 1/18 - Up 10.1%.) Part of their private equity exposure. Management team is really strong. They do very unique things all over the world. You can consider this a long-term holding. Well funded. Well capitalized.

Well run. Good synergy form merger. Cheap

He doesn’t know their financials. The company is trying to revive a historic mining area in Ontario. This type of work takes a lot of money and might require First Cobalt to issue more shares, driving down the price. Alternatively, they might take on a lot of debt, which carries its own problems. Cobalt is…

(Market Call Minute.) We are all using more paper than we ever did before. Might not be an unreasonable thing to own right now.

(Market Call Minute.) Lumber is probably the poster child for seasonality. The time to own is going into the 4th quarter. There has been some improvement in housing which favours lumber producers, and this is one of the best suited. He would look toward September.

Chart is showing a trend change. Yielding 11% so this makes him nervous.

He's shorting, because of its valuation. They have mid-range price momentum, and volatility is OK. But they trade at 22x earnings and missed a recent quarter. Weak valuation that needs to improve.

Compared to Canfor (CFP-T) and West Fraser (WFT-T), this has the least exposure to the softwood lumber issue. Only 15%-20% of their product is shipped across the US border. 60% of their production is already in the US. The housing market in the US is growing, but is still growing quite slowly because of the…

Fundamentally it trades between 1 and 2 times book value. When it gets bellow book value is time to get in. Book value is between 16 and 17 and the stock is trading at 21. Probably has 5 bucks on the downside before is a buy. But balance sheet is fine. And the earnings continue…

They now have over $1 billion in terms of the value of the gold on hand. You are buying physical gold that this company is storing for you. They are also growing globally. Thinks the growth rate is going to be quite fast. He is interested both in the stock and what they are doing.

On his Watch List and he might be buying soon. The oil/gas seismic is part of their business, but they have had more of a growth in the trucking area where they have a solution for fleet management and tracking. This adds a lot of efficiencies.

Has been long on promise and short on delivery until very recently. Looks like they are finally getting their act together. Ranks 19, top 3% of his database. Earnings growth was up 70% year-over-year. Earnings are expected to grow from $0.51-$0.62 in 2014. Pretty good opportunity for the stock.

They just released earnings this week and they have been turning their business around -- increasing margins and growing organically. Management owns about 18% of the shares and it trades at 5 times earnings. He thinks it could trade at twice that level. They are involved in patient home monitoring. Yield 0% (Analysts’ price target…

Does rapid testing for clinical diagnostics. Has held in quite well. Going through an approval process and it looks like things will be okay. Leveraged earnings are pretty big. Likes the company but is not actively buying it.

Making changes to be able to invest more in foreign stocks. Wait to see how they do.

Private mortgage insurance. Finally broke out and did well. You have had most of the catch up in valuation. He would be nervous going forward with the Canadian real estate market continuing.

He does not own it, but he is watching closely with the recent pullback. It is extremely well run, but operates on thin margins. He would wait until after the Ontario election, because insurance rates can be a political football. It has a good long term future. (Analysts’ price target is $108 )

An asset manager that operates in the high net worth space. The demographics are great. Family assets are growing more quickly than lower net worth households. Also, client relationships tend to be longer-term and stickier, due to the nature of the services offered. The stock is discounted because of long-term litigation with the founders, which…

Dividend nicely covered, at 50% or more. Yield is good. Stock trading between two technical points, which are both discounts to book value. Risk is $23 to the downside, and about $28 on the upside. He prefers to buy on support, instead of in between. Nothing wrong with it, but earnings estimates are oozing downward…

GWO-T vs. MFC-T. MFC-T has the advantage of being a very diversified company, globally. They have done well from that diversification. He tends to prefer it to GWO-T, although he might use its weakness to buy.

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…

Chart shows it has had 2 little bottoms, and is positive that the downtrend has been broken. Financials in general have been pretty weak. Until this one breaks out of the downtrend channel, he would not start a new position. Rising interest rates help financials. Dividend yield of 6.3%.

Well run. To make money in the long run, you have to be a counter-cyclical acquirer like Suncor. If you're holding it for income, you might want to stick with it. Resilient cash flow profile. But as a total return growth stock, better opportunities elsewhere. Shareholder friendly. Yield is north of 4%. One concern is…

Hanfeng Evergreen (HF-T), Hanwei Energy (HE-T) and Migao (MGO-T) are interesting plays into China. Have been crushed but give direct exposure to what he expects will be the strongest currency over the next 25 years. You are buying them with multiples of earnings (not cash flows) that are unbelievably low. Wants to look at these…

Trucking and well completion services. Pre-eminent logistics player on oil sands. Expected them to make acquisitions by this time. Long-term, great company to own. 3.4% yield.

Looks for and acquires undervalued Canadian companies. Uses public market valuation and private market valuation, which has a big spread between them, and arbitrages them.

It dropped because Husky dropped their bid for the company. Can MEG make it on its own or are there other potential buyers – he would not hold his breath. It will continue to de-lever and become more attractive in the marketplace. Another potential bidder may not have to be in a hurry to buy…

Dividend is approaching 14%. Too good to be true? No. He used to own this. Trades at 0.6x book value, an all-time low. Dividend is safe. LNG will get built on the west coast, so be patient and get paid to wait.

Over the next three years as Japan turns reactors back on and China continues to build them, demand will come back. Reactors tend to carry 3-5 years of inventory on site. He thinks they will re-establish themselves and demand will come back. (Analysts’ price target is $18.13)

This does energy services and energy marketing, so they are a reseller of different products such as natural gas. Now they’ve just gotten into solar. Have done test marketing both in California and New York, which has gone well, so they are going to start to roll it out across the country. They are also…

It's not effected by the cancellation of green projects in Ontario. They own a few wind turbine farms. But their management will need to bring investment dollars from other provinces, the U.S. and abroad. Ontario was set up as the leader in green energy which will turn off potential investors from investing in this space.

We just had a positive transit. Maybe it is becoming known. $25.80 is the model price. 5.5% yield. It is underpriced. It looks like it is going to go places.

A bond proxy? A steady stock with a good dividend. The price war in wireless is canalizing some margins. He thinks the fundamentals of the company will likely deteriorate over the next couple of years. A 5.3% yield. He will continue to hold for now.