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

It will be interesting to see what happens with the acquisition of the Air Transat airline. Everyone is very cost competitive so he does not like airlines. There might be a bump here. If we are serious about climate change, then air travel is a major contributor. There may be a little money to be…

Balance sheet moving sideways. Trading above its FMV, so not a lot of oomph in the stock. Could get to $62, but that's it. Decent, but not great, dividend and balance sheet.

They have an outstanding CEO. The deal with Blackstone at 11.5 EBIDTA was expensive. Long term it will be a volatile stock (especially for the next few months) with the company going through transition. At these prices it is getting more interesting. Yield 3.4%.

It is not fabulous value and its fair market value is much lower, yet it has shown a technical breakout and is giving a technical buy.

(A Top Pick July 28/15. Down 18.89%.) This is basically a modular furniture company, but more than that they have innovative design technology. You can sit in a room and, given the software, you can visualize what it is going to look like and what the price is going to be, and build it right…

(A Top Pick Nov 12/15. Up 5.27%.) Really unique properties, probably the best landholdings of any of the REITs. As the economy moves, the growth we have seen in the past just won’t be there in the future. It will probably take 3 or 4 quarters before the growth stabilizes.

6.5% yield. The market put them in the penalty box due to an acquisition. (Analysts’ price target is $30.85)

Choice or Riocan to sell? He sold Choice recently. It disapointed him. This was Loblaw that spun into a REIT. Choice just merged with CREIT which has seaoned management. He doesn't like Choice--it's decayed more than the REIT sector. It'll be a work in progress for a while. He would sell Riocan and hold Choice,…

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…

Recently bought the stock. This is the 1st day that Element Financial shares are formally split into 2 companies, ECN Capital (ECN-T) and Element Fleet Management (EFN-T). Thinks both are undervalued. He tends to do this in terms of the Price to Book ratio. The BV is more or less about $4, so if you…

No, retail is not going out of fashion. HR will work out okay and will grind out a slowly growing dividend. The fear out there is that Amazon will destroy all retail--but that's unfounded. Also, HR diversifies into building condos too. A safe dividend, but with modest growth prospects.

(A Top Pick Jan 21/16. Up 22.52%.) He chose this because it was very cheap at the time. He was looking for catalysts Halifax occupancy to turn and for them to change from a corporation into a REIT, giving them more liquidity. He still likes the name and the growth rate. It is cheap for…

Proposing to take over True North Apartment REITs. A very controversial deal, and usually this company doesn’t do things that are deemed controversial. The market was not positive on this because basically you usually don’t do dilutive deals when you’re stock price is at a lower level and trading significantly below NAV. The view is…

Because this is a bit small as an industrial, he does not invest in this REIT. He thinks there will be good solid growth this year in the industrial market, especially in the GTA. This one has low Alberta exposure and more GTA exposure. A good place to be. He is starting to see rent…

A grocery anchored retail in secondary markets in the US. They were very effective at getting a currency spread as well as good valuations, and were able to ride that up. Some of the more recent acquisitions are in truly secondary markets, plus they have external management, so he is not in this.

Has done a little bit of work on this but is not an expert on it as yet. Really likes what they are doing in terms of third-party pension administration. Companies are outsourcing all sorts of administrative issues. They don’t need a whole lot of capital, because it is a service business. Stock has done…

(A Top Pick Jan 09/18, Up 11%) A lot of the gain is from currency. Mostly a US company. Recurring revenues. Thesis is there's a long runway of growth, they have the scale and the buying power to serve condos. Not cheap, but he likes it because of the growth.

This would not be his favourite. This is a multi-family REIT. Some of the ones he likes a little bit better have internal management and better balance sheets. If you are buying this, you are really buying it for the yield. You can get better risk/reward with similar yield with something like a Pure Multi-Family…

Why did it split? He owns this one and it has done well over the long term. He would buy again and it is fairly defensive. The idea of splitting allows smaller investors to get in and that is probably the idea here. He does not think it is a problem they split.

Has been out of grocery for a couple of years. Low margins. Most people go to Costco. There are so many pressures like e-commerce, competition, inflation. Have to get so many things right, and so little wiggle room. He's not a fan of buying back stock, companies need to buckle down and innovate. Great assets,…

Loves it. Long-term, the chart is good, but short-term he is waiting for a buy signal. It's gone sideways between 2016-18, then had a strong breakout, and now we see pullback to support at $90. Expect more choppiness near-term. He'd like to see a pullback to around $85, consolidation, then re-acceleration to the upside.

The business model has always been a really good one. They tend to sell in markets where competition has been more limited and prices high. Looking long term, the structure of those markets might be changing, but they have diversified. They own a number of Giant Tiger stores. They have operations in the Caribbean. He…

The chart looks great and has had a good run since start-2018. Don't sell it. If you trade, sell half.

An independent power producer. They have about 3000 MW of basically US based, but they do have some projects, primarily wind, in Ontario and Manitoba. Trading very inexpensively. They have the ability through their parent Pattern Energy Group (PEGI-Q) to vend in new development projects, so they don’t sustain development risks. They are 89%-90% contracted…

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 Top Pick Apr 04/18, Up 25%) It always grows organically. The knock against it is that grows modestly at 1-3%. They buyback shares and occasionally do tuck-in acqusitions. But their growth rate has accelerated despite Brexit and American trade issues; they still get the deals they want in those territories. It's trading at higher…

Recent purchase puts it into direct competition with Amazon. Great momentum stock. Valuation is the issue. Trading at over 500x forward earnings, with 45% growth rate. Quite the PEG ratio. Focused on small businesses, so it's super vulnerable in a downturn.

Dead money for quite a few years. The technology was tied to laptops but now everyone is using tablets. Thinks earnings will come through with earnings from Samsung agreement.

This has been the best performer in the portfolio. He has taken some money off the table. He expects it to continue to move. Good reserves and good production. A solid name. Yield = 0.35% (Analysts’ price target is $51.22)

(A Top Pick Jan 24/14. Down 11.04%.) He really likes this story. 80% of silver production comes from a by-product from copper mines and from mines that are really shutting down. Pure silver plays are rare. Located in Argentina which is probably why the price has been hurt a little more, but it hasn’t hurt…

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.

All this does is to invest in high interest deposit accounts. It is a constant steady stream of income. He hates recommending cash, but this is essentially a place to park your cash during the summer. You will at least get your 1% annual income.

They are separating REITS out of financials in Canada in September. He does not see any net buyer because of this. He has cut his exposure to REITs in half in the last week. He prefers ZRE-T because of broader exposure.

It doesn’t have a huge range of trading. Yield is okay at about 3%. Short-term pays you less than 1% on an after-tax basis, so this is not a bad place to park your money.

A lot of people are chasing yield but utilities are not in favour this time of year. Technicals are not favorable right now. Stay away from this and go toward the cyclicals. Get in in July.

A safe way to play the fixed income side of a portfolio. This company roams the world looking for opportunities in the fixed income market. It has produced very good long-term returns, and he would recommend it.

ZJK-T vs. ZHY-T. High yield is a sexy name for junk bonds. They are the worst quality bonds. In a downturn these companies will not be able to pay back their bond holders first. If equities fall 20%, high yield bonds fall 13%. There is more risk for a portfolio.

Videotron 7.125% Jan 15, 2020 Bond. Credit metrics of an investment grade bond. They are the cable providers of Quebec. They have to push their profits up to QBR.B-T, but in the case of any insolvency of QBR, Videotron is made whole. The biggest risk is that they would be the 4th big player out…

Very well-run company. He thinks there is a lot of hidden value in this company. The next generation of the internet he thinks is going to benefit them.

A spin-off from Bankers Petroleum (BNK-T). Shale gas in the US. He doesn’t follow this one.

It still has an ancient stigma, but that's old history. It trades at a 20% free cash flow yield, and trading at 70% of its liquidation value. Land interests total $1.1 billion. or 50% of its market cap. They're marketing some infrastructure assets. If they take one-third of that to pay down debt they can…

Chart shows this has taken quite a dip in the last while. Changes in management because of production mishaps. Need to look at these from both a production standpoint and a commodity standpoint. Have a constrained balance sheet and not a lot of room to raise CapX for growth. More linked to oil than to…

(A Top Pick Sept 10/10. Up 53.37%.)

BBI-X is the old ticker. The merger involves a 10 for 1 split. PIPE-X shows a couple of weeks of trading and that is what to go by. They are coming on with new production facilities soon. By the end of the year, they will go to 10 times that. He thinks it is cheap…

This is not the first bear market he has seen. This is the next new big mine. Diamonds have been going thought a bit of a dry spell. There were finance issues. The rough market for diamonds is up a little right now. He prefers to go in at a little earlier stage. He believes…

Lithium space. There has been a lot of interest as agreements are signed. Companies signing early before TSLA-Q’s giga factory gets into production may not be an advantage. This one is probably cheap.

Located in Québec. Have had early good exploration results. What they are drilling trends under a Lake so they will be doing some winter drilling program on the ice. There could be an economic deposit.

Agricultural company focused in Brazil. Has a phosphate deposit, which is expected to come Into production over the next few years. Also looking at other opportunities. Brazil is going to have to import fertilizer, so there is a cost advantage of producing in Brazil.

Steel manufacturing. Play on infrastructure in Western Canada. Has done a great job over the past 18 months amassing capacity. Has about 420,000 ft.² in Western Canada. An area where he sees growth leading up to the Olympics in 2010. Have some large projects that the market doesn't know about. First 9 months did $80…

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.

Biofuel. Canada has an incredible forestry industry with a huge emphasis on planting trees. PL takes wood waste like sawdust and turns it into energy. This fuel can replace coal that is also carbon-neutral.

Eric Sprott’s one of the smartest people in Canada and is assembling a first-class investment team. There are some issues with Timminco (TIM-T) that have to be cleared up first. If you have a 2 or 3 year outlook, a great buy.

Blockchain technology. There are going to be big winners and big losers in this area. A lot of banks are getting involved. This, in many ways, is the wave of the future. At the same time, there are going to be a lot of companies that will simply disappear. You have to be very careful…

Involved in fibre-optics to the home. Interesting new technology. Would not buy until it is closer to the time when their first chips start coming out in ’07 and then wait to see if they can ramp up volume production.

If you like gold... Getting 2 times leverage as gold price decreases. Gold is a play on the U.S dollar. Makes money if the price of gold stock goes down.

Double leveraged fund. You only use it for short term holds. The seasonal period starts right now until the end of June, getting a return of 12% typically. We are starting to see some flatness in the chart now. HUN-T is not leveraged. There is less volatility.