Air Canada, Couche-Tard & More at 52-week Highs and Lows (Feb 6-12)

Opinion about AC-T: Not compelling right now for transparently understanding where it could go to. With the tariffs, this business is something that could actually be on the table; the dynamics of the Canadian market might change dramatically. Makes most of its money off international flights.

Opinion about BIP.UN-T: Infrastructure is a great asset class. Brookfield is world-class, great at being value investors. A lot of the return tends to come from yield as opposed to growth. Good income generator with good underlying assets. For the long term.

Opinion about TRI-T: (A Top Pick May 17/24, Up 25%) This name is basically nothing but data, and we've been talking about AI over the last couple of years. Significant opportunity to layer AI over their data in law, healthcare, and financial services. That's the long-term story here, we're in very early days.

Opinion about WCN-T: Trevor Rose’s Insights - Trevor’s most-liked answers from 5i Research Yesterday, Bloomberg posted an article noting it may ultimately cost more to address a high-temperature event at WCN's Chiquita Canyon Landfill than previously thought. The company has budgeted for $100M to $150M in remediation costs this year but Bloomberg said it may…

Opinion about DRT-T: Customized, prefabricated environmental office interior solutions. High net cash position. Significant upside because of their flexible business model. Surge in office reconfiguration taking place across North America. Top management. No dividend. (Analysts’ price target is $3.46)

Opinion about AP.UN-T: It has high quality properties. Essentially its income passes through to shareholders and therefore it has to issue shares for growth. He prefers real estate operating companies with more flexible capital structures, eg. storage companies.

Opinion about BPY.UN-T: Preferred shares. He does invest in some selective preferred shares for some clients with balanced mandates. Unique because BPY.UN used to be a separate, publicly traded company, so you got full transparency. But then Brookfield privatized it, so you don't get the same transparency. But Brookfield has always been a fairly good…

Opinion about CHP.UN-T: (A Top Pick Jul 12/24, Up 14%) Likes it, but should invest in better areas. Bought it for defence. It's boring, but steady. Great long-term for retirees seeking safe income, but won't rise in price much. But during the next pullback, which he expects in coming weeks.

Opinion about CRT.UN-T: Similar to grocery-anchored. Suite of tenants connected to Canadian Tire. Very well structured with nice little increases in rent over time along with inflation. Really likes it. Very stable. With tariffs, he suspects that more of us will shop Canadian brands to support our Canadian economy.

Opinion about ECN-T: Trevor Rose’s Insights - Trevor’s most-liked answers from 5i Research ECN is, at least, up 58% in the past year (down 16% YTD). Considering its economic exposure and small size, its decline is not really out of line with others. That being said, it is hard to be too bullish here. Consumers…

Opinion about HR.UN-T: Hostile takeover. Diversified REIT that doesn't work very well anymore, as it tends to trade at the multiple of the least-liked sector it owns, and it has a lot of office. If you own, hold on, as today's press release indicated interest from multiple parties (and so a higher bid may come…

Opinion about KMP.UN-T: Very well managed. Company size is in the top 5. Originally focused on the Maritimes, which has seen a lot of population inflows. Expanding into other markets in Ontario such as Kitchener-Waterloo. Likes that they're experienced developers, always improving. Energy-efficient, new construction. Not facing high-rent pressures of others.

Opinion about NVU.UN-T: Unique. Core of the portfolio is in northern Canada. A lot of the leases are pseudo-government leases for government employees. Debt is a bit too high, but the core income will help de-lever over time.

Opinion about SMU.UN-T: (A Top Pick Sep 28/22, Up 45%) Got taken out. Traded at a 25% discount in a sector that was in high demand.

Opinion about SRT.UN-T: This would be a hold for him, if not a sell. It has US grocery stores in small centres. It has an external management contract, which he feels is not in alignment with share holders.

Opinion about SUM-T: (A Top Pick Jun 14/18, Up 59%) It is another example of an undervalued tech company in Canada. It was taken out by MS-N just over a month ago.

Opinion about FSV-T: Compounded its way to extremely high valuation. Well run. Great serial acquirer. Trying to get into renovation and disaster restoration. Lumpy segments. Thinks roofing will be a home run.

Opinion about NXR.UN-T: Industrial properties in Western Canada, London, and Montreal. Not quite big enough for the index, but it's close. Some really good assets. If they can just get over the hump to the $1-1.5B market cap, then this could become an in-favour REIT with institutions. Thinks they can do it if they can…

Opinion about ATD.B-T: It is a growth by acquisition company and is disciplined about not over-paying. It ranks at an attractive level. The cost of fuel is a concern and where do they get their margins. Look elsewhere on an overall basis with consumer related stocks.

Opinion about L-T: Likes its positioning in food retail and its pharmaceutical business. Expansion of pharmacists' duties is helping traffic. Discount banners have really been benefiting from softness in the economy, and they have plans to expand the discount footprint. Acquisition of TNT, an Asian chain, is going well.

Opinion about QSR-T: She's nervous about the consumer, particularly in Canada. Highly indebted consumer is being more cautious on discretionary spending. If it were just Tim's, she'd be OK with it because she likes the trade-down economics. Burger King is still closing stores, lots of competition and margin pressure.

Opinion about NWC-T: Well run. Near-monopoly on retail in Canada's North. Lots of talk from the new government in Canada about investing in Northern defense to protect our assets. Could benefit from more infrastructure and military bases. Nice dividend. Steady, long-term performer.

Opinion about FTS-T: Dividend choice for an 18-year-old to hold forever. Young investors don't care as much about dividend stocks, but they're really important. It's like collecting rent, instead of making money only once you sell a stock. The earlier they start, the more they reap the benefit of the compounding effect that takes place…

Opinion about PEGI-T: A good dividend play. The yield is at 4.6%. People tend to focus on the tech side of green stocks, but this has utilities that have consistent income. They are a potential takeover target for Brookfield so the price has recently shot up. Could get decent returns.

Opinion about VNR-T: A lot of success is tied to Gaz Metro in Québec, but they also have some wind farms that have recently come online in the last year or 2, and giving good returns to the company. Recent earnings were solid and they raised the dividend by 3.7%, and plan to raise it…

Opinion about GIB.A-T: Global operations; with Canada representing ~15% of revenue, US ~30%, 44-45% in Europe and UK. Outsourcing (~55% of the business) has long-term contracts, so that's defensive and not as cyclical. Consulting side tends to be more economically sensitive. Stock's pulled back ~17% from highs in February. About 14% of revenue is from doing…

Opinion about SHOP-T: Still a decent runway to price target of $178, so don't trim. Look to trim if it gets above $170. Because of the volatility, writing some calls would be pretty lucrative.

Opinion about ABST-T: Trevor Rose’s Insights - Trevor’s most-liked answers from 5i Research. The stock drifted along under $12 through 2022 to August when it moved up to about $16 which held to the start of November when it fell to its month-end close of $13.24. ABST is a leading provider of self-healing endpoint and…

Opinion about KL-T: (A Top Pick Feb 25/21, Up 15.3%)Stockchase Research Editor: Michael O’Reilly With the recent completed acquisition by AEM now official, we now consider this position closed. When combined with the previous recommendation to cover half the position, this results in a net investment gain of 22%.

Opinion about SSRM-T: One of the most senior producers of silver. Silver is better than gold, as the bulk of silver production comes from copper mines. Silver just crossed $24, and there's lots of upside. SSRM has a $28 price target. He wants something that will benefit once inflation is realized.

Opinion about SLAU-X: An interesting one. Brazil. They have some high-grade veins that they have done some work on. They are drilling and it will prove it one way or the other. There will be lots of entry points coming up.

Opinion about PSA-T: De-risking 40% of a portfolio at age 59. Likes the idea of PSA. TLT, he believes, is a leveraged play on the bond market and wouldn't do that. BNS high interest savings, for example, pays 4.75% for optionality and no risk. For an ETF filled with 1-year bonds that's very low risk, look…

Opinion about XRE-T: Challenging to own REITs in Canada. The 5-year return is slightly negative, even including dividends. Some names in it make sense, some don't. Cumulative inflation has hurt REI.UN, the second-largest holding. Softness in Canadian economy. 5- and 10-year yields are moving higher, and REITs are very sensitive to higher rates because of their…

Opinion about XSH-T: In a rising rate environment, you might want to stick to a shorter term. XSH is a short-term, corporate, investment-grade ETF. Had drawdowns, but not as bad as a typical aggregate bond or high-yield ETF.

Opinion about XUT-T: ZWU question Utilities are a very low-volatility sector, so the premiums are lower compared to oil/gas. He suggests holding both this and ZWU-T. Utilities are a top sector, because valuations are so reasonable (hard to find that in this market). ZWU will give you covered calls, but XUT will give you upside.…

Opinion about PMIF-T: Trevor Rose’s Insights - Trevor’s most-liked answers from 5i Research PMIF is a more active fixed income fund designed to be adapt the portfolio to market conditions. We think fixed income funds in general can be good options offering low-risk, predictable cash flows which offer a diversification from equities. While returns have…

Opinion about ZJK-T: Have seen an expansion in the spreads, which means the credit risk has caused the bonds to deteriorate in price. Second-largest high-yield ETF in Canada. MER is 61 bps. Acts more like equity because of the types of companies that tend to issue high-yield debt, but it has more yield too. While…

Opinion about QBR.B-T: (A Top Pick Jan 23/24, Up 3%) Benefiting from the Freedom Mobile purchase. Able to expand in Ontario and Western Canada without deploying too much capex. Very high ROE and free cashflow, allowing them to lower debt and obtain investment-grade rating on bonds. Aggressively buying back shares. Best-performing telecom stock this year.

Opinion about SJR.B-T: It comes down to the Rogers deal, which the street thinks will happen, but this is the fourth deadline extension. The deal has been priced into shares, so there isn't much upside. Better to buy Rogers or Telus than Shaw.

Opinion about BKX-T: Shale gas in the US. A spin out from Bankers Petroleum (BNK-T). There is a lot of potential excitement but it just doesn't have the same management quality team. Just too risky in the market at this point.

Opinion about CPG-T: Great company. Looking at the chart, big wall of resistance it just couldn't get through. Then it broke out. If you own it, hold. If it pulls back to the neckline, he'd be all over it.

Opinion about EGL-T: He stayed away because they went to the states to make acquisitions. He did not know why the Americans would not already take these assets. He stays away from it.

Opinion about MTL-T: Grown by acquisition quite steadily over the years. Very good company and it won't hurt you, but he owns TFII instead.

Opinion about PIPE-T: Better names in market.Will face issue of paper sellers with recent sale.Shares not cheap enough.

Opinion about MPVD-T: Sees no change to the dividend theory. The 3 Irish business millionaires actually control the company and are holding it long-term for the dividends. The company has some costs going on disadvantaging it. The diamond sector itself has not produced really stellar performance. This is a “wait and see”.

Opinion about NMX-T: They have a done a deal with a private equity company, effectively taking the company private. Their hard rock lithium project is challenged due to the infrastructure constraints -- including rail and power. They needed more money, creating an opportunity for the private equity company.

Opinion about BTR-X: It looks interesting, but is too small for his funds. It has under-performed for the past few years. They are in the right place at the right time, but we need to see some good drill results soon.

Opinion about IFOS-X: Billy Kawasaki’s Insights - Billy’s most-liked answers from 5i Research. They have been growing their top-line quickly over the last quarters. Net profit margins are improving. Although debt is quite elevated, they have cash balances and equity positions that are decent. Valuation is cheap and future growth estimates are good.A smaller size…

Opinion about EIL-X: He covers the stock and owns it. The business is doing well. They are a leader in their space. There was a big investor out of China that fell on hard times and has had to sell shares. It may be poised for a turnaround.

Opinion about GQM-T: Has an old mine outside of Los Angeles that was run in the 1930s. Closed down during the Second World War and they are doing open pit mining in the area. Has some issues, but at these gold prices, it will probably start to work again. Under followed. Highly speculative.

Opinion about PL-T: They made wood pellets which are used in biomass generation facilities. He has owned this, but it's volatile due to management and operational issues. Wood pellets are vulnerable to fire, which is what happened last year. Their backlog in Japan and Korea is robust is good, but he doesn't like their concentration…

Opinion about SII-T: To protect purchasing power? Yes, that's exactly the reason to own Sprott. It's a diversifier. Gold is a way as an investor to protect yourself from inflation and geopolitical concerns. This name brings leverage to gold because of assets they own and funds they manage. It also brings uranium. He sold some…

Opinion about DM-X: It is now focusing on Mobile EV charging. It had previously sold Covid test kits. Has a $32 million market cap. It is a difficult business to make money in, is not profitable, and there are better options. (Analysts’ price target is $0.12)

Opinion about ENA-X: A play that could be triple / quadruple. Optical chips for next, next generation. 100 Gig data rates. High risk.

Opinion about HGD-T: Where you talk about a bear or bull ETF that is levered, they have no future. You are supposed to trade them on a day to day basis or possible a weekly basis. They are guaranteed to lose over the long term because of the way the gains are translated over night.…

Opinion about HNU-T: He's not a commodity expert. PKI has leverage so it's volatile. You must be confident that the underlying commodity will move up. He's never seen anyone make money in this sector. You'd have to constantly watch oil prices to hold this.