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

Does not invest long term in airlines. Business very hard - capita requirements very high, with low margins. Few barriers to entry - lots of new competitors. Oil prices are volatile - which creates difficulty in costs. No dividend makes this company hard to invest in. Better options elsewhere. 

(A Top Pick Feb 14/24, Up 18%) A pick for income, but also has growth; that combo is really important. Really likes still. Would consider buying today.

Up 17.5% YTD. Very much technology-driven in have-to-have services in accounting, law, and other areas. Gaining penetration in its industries. Problem now is the high multiple, has become more like a growth stock. Better places to look.It never hurts to take a profit, because you never really make money until you actually realize it. Overall,…

Garbage is boring and a beautiful business. Looks poised to break out to new highs. A boring name with strong technicals (price momentum, RSI, and whether institutions are buying or selling). Price momentum is improving and, especially, trading above 50- and 200-day MAs. RSI is reaccelerating. Strong technical setup, with a good fundamental idea. Yield…

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)

Would recommend holding shares. Payout ratio is high, but appears to be able to manage. Occupancy numbers will be interesting to watch. As Toronto grows, will be good for business. Just takes time. 

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 corporate citizen and…

Core holding in portfolio. Tenants include Loblaws and Shoppers Drug market which is very good for stable cash flow. Excellent pick for long term investors (10 years or more). Expecting further development in industrial properties. Lots of room for the company to experience growth. 

Over 90% of rents come from Canadian Tire, secure cashflow. Over 99% occupancy. Internal growth has contracted, but this is short-term. Perhaps only 2% capital growth, but a safe distribution. Yield is 6.5%.

Trevor Rose’s Insights - Trevor’s most-liked answers from 5i Research National Bank has made ECN a Top 2025 pick. The company has a high degree of leverage to interest rates and the economy. If rates decline and the economy holds up, it certainly could do well. Consensus calls for 75% growth in 2025. We think…

Would recommend holding. Majority of portfolio in sunbelt states like Arizona and Texas. Would expect income to increase as more people move to warmer Southern areas. Good balance sheet that allows company to maintain dividend payouts. Expecting better times for company ahead. 

Reports on November 5. Now trading at an interesting level, over 15% discount to NAV. Fallen perhaps because of announcement on immigration being curtailed. 60% of portfolio in Atlantic Canada, actively diversifying in Ontario and BC. Likes that 44% of assets are not subject to rent control. Expecting results to be good. Stay the course.

It is a subject of a takeover and you might consider holding it until the close of the take out transaction. You could also move to another apartment REIT. Your upside is capped from here with NVU.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.

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.

(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.

Really well run, very good compounder. Likes the business, always on his watchlist, but it always trades as such a rich valuation. Strong growth profile, but valuation exceeds it. If you can get it at the right price, hold for a long time because huge runway ahead.Largely insulated from tariffs, as services take place locally…

Pretty good job transitioning to pure-play industrial, but some worry about capital allocation. Trades at a higher discount than peers. He wants more liquidity and concentrated in key markets. Better risk/reward in larger entities with more liquidity. See his Top Picks.

Very strong business - founder led & owned. Exception creator of wealth the past ~20 years. Has owned shares since 2014. Very good consolidator of convenience stores. High quality capital allocation skills. Recent 7-Eleven M&A is interesting, but depends on the final price that is settled on. Would recommend holding and/or buying. 

Unfortunately, tariffs mean consumers will pay more. Eventually it will cost people their jobs. Phenomenal awakening of raising prices and capturing margins. Valuation of 20x would make him sell, deploy profits elsewhere. See his Top Picks.

The valuation assumes there is no growth happening but there is. It is expanding, including overseas, but not focused on China like its peers. Has a new CEO from Dominoes which did very well.

(A Top Pick Oct 28/24, Down 15%) It's rangebound. He bought it closer to the bottom, but hasn't risen as hoped. He'd trade at $6. He'll give it the benefit of the doubt, unless it falls beneath support. He's collecting a nice 8% dividend, though.

FTS vs. EMA EMA is his choice. Bumps along the road, but the price has appreciated. Rates coming down have helped EMA's profit. Over time, expectation is that EMA will be the better choice over FTS. 

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.

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 4% next year.…

(A Top Pick Dec 13/23, Up 9%) Corporate budgets under pressure has dampened spending. Backlog has remained very strong. Hasn't grown as strongly as some peers. Sitting just above his buy price at north of 20x; for new $$, wait for a better valuation.

Very volatile. Options are very expensive. Sell puts $165 April for around $5. 

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 secure access solutions.…

(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%.

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.

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.

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 at ZST.L. Pays…

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 debt. REITs might…

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.

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. So, own both,…

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 not been exceptional,…

It has a fixed distribution and is making up some of that by returning capital. He would stick with MFT in the same space.

(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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Better names in market.Will face issue of paper sellers with recent sale.Shares not cheap enough.

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”.

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.

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.

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 so could see…

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.

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.

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 risk in a…

(A Top Pick Dec 12/23, Up 42%) Organic growth of internal products has done extremely well. Has become a brand name for precious metals investing, and increasingly in natural resources. Can see it being snapped up in a few years by a global financial player.Disclosure:  He believes he's still the largest shareholder in Sprott.

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)

A play that could be triple / quadruple. Optical chips for next, next generation. 100 Gig data rates. High risk.

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. These are a…

You only want to use this as a short-term vehicle for a seasonal trade. Not a buy-and-hold.Disclosure:  He works for Global X (formerly Horizons).