This week’s new 52-week highs and lows… (Jan 9-15)

(A Top Pick Jul 27/18, Up 34%) Most recent quarter a bit soft. But focus on the same store sales number, that's the important one. In a decade, they haven't issues shares once. They'll be able to grow through acquisitions and by selling more products. Could still put new money to work here today.

A year ago they went through a restructuring and then a big acquisition in Safeway. They were left with a banner that had few discount brands in Western Canada, then tinkered with their loyalty program and that upset consumers. Last quarter the results were not liked. He used to have it but now prefers WN-T…

He fears that the grocery sector will get disrupted. Not optimistic. Loblaw has spent so much on beautifying their stores, but failed to earn a sales increase from consumers. Meanwhile, people are buying food online with the Amazon-Whole Foods deal.

It is one of the oldest companies in Canada. It is a no growth situation. There are far more interesting names to own in the food distribution space.

Loblaw (L-T), Empire (EMP.A-T) or Metro (MRU-T)? Loblaw has proven to be the best run grocer in Canada. Empire has had its challenges but is starting to come back. This company would be somewhere in between the two.

A hydro-vac company for excavation. It trades at 14.2 times earnings and there was very good earnings recently. Their dividend was increased by 18% recently. They have diversified into infrastructure and away from oil and gas. Yield 1.9%. (Analysts’ price target is $32.38 )

Not in their database. Expected they will earn about six cents. Pretty good growth, but not cheap.

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.

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…

Has no current plans to own this. Has a high regard for management, but his suspicion is that their cost of capital is too low. He sees them having a very difficult time thriving in the next 18 months. There are much better names out there.

Silvercrest Metals (SIL-T) or Silvercorp Metals (SVM-T)? This one is a fairly small deposit, but with high quality people.

(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…

Produces gravel in Fort McMurray. Management owns about 44%. Have produced enormous profits relative to their market cap but the stock trades for 5X trailing earnings. If you believe in the oil sands and the construction of these big plants and roads, this is the play for you because they are pretty much the dominant…

When this IPO’d, it was primarily dependent on Magna (MG-T) accounting for well over 90% of its net operating income. Management’s objective was to reduce Magna’s exposure to less than 50% NOI within 3 years by making additional acquisitions by using their under leveraged balance sheet. Management has not done that in a very aggressive…

Loves the industrial space. It is easy to build it so more supply could come on line. Properties are a little low quality, but your income is safe.

At these levels the valuation looks attractive. The dividend is safe. They don’t have as high a dividend growth outlook as other REITs though. A good hold for a diversified portfolio.

Recent IPO that he did not participate in. He was concerned with some of the tenant concentration and, one building in particular, where there was a head lease on the building which meant that the occupancy and the rents were being guaranteed, even though they were operating at well below what the company considered normalized.…

Yes, it’s retail, but best in class. Trades at 15x earnings, which is cheap. Spectacular management. Anchors for Walmart, which is doing well against Amazons of the world. Aggressive development in Toronto. Best tenants and assets. Diversifying and creating more margin. Yield is 5.8%. (Analysts’ price target is $32.61.)

For short-term investors such as money market types. Simple way to get broad, low cost diversified money market exposure.

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.

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.

1-5 year Laddered ETF. This will have a pretty short duration so will probably give you in the 2.5% range. It will suffer too much from rising interest rates. Not a bad place to park for a while.

This has lagged, because basically you are holding T-bills and equal-end type instruments. When you’re starting at 1%, there is not much room for price appreciation. This is more of a cash alternative as opposed to a bond alternative.

DEX Floating Rate ETF (XFR-T) or Vanguard Cdn. Aggregate Bond ETF (VAB-T)? If interest rates rise, which would you Buy? The aggregate bond is a little bit longer in duration with an average of 6 or 7 years and might be a little bit more sensitive to interest rate hikes so this one might be…

Nothing wrong with this ETF at all. 5 to 6 year durations because they are mid-cap corps.

Short Term Corp Bond ETF. Doesn't think there are risks any more with corporate bonds. This will give you a bit of yield pickup without venturing into preferreds. (Similar to XCB-T, which he owns.)

He likes it at current levels and would start to pick away at it. A good, long-term dividend play. It's not recession-proof; it's a discretionary consumer stock.

It started to roll over and get soft. $25.22 would be the support. We are at a 16 week low.

He likes the acquisitions they made. These businesses take a long time to start to really generate free cash flow. He does not expect huge things in the next few quarters. With a 1 to 3 year outlook, they will start to generate a lot more free cash flow. The will start to pay a…

Got hurt. Margin compression. In US, it matters what can you get paid from Medicare. Missed numbers last 2 quarters, got clocked, now trying to get back onside. A “show me” stock. Stay away for at least another 6-12 months.

Would like to get in at the $6 level. Cash flow positive.

(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.

Seasonality for utilities is just about to start in June. The bottom in February is really indicative of a lot of utility companies. Chart shows a nice nascent trend. If we get above $4, this will usher in a lot of new buyers. Thinks there is pretty good upside potential on this.

Holds a rate-reset stock that's gone down. Sell now, wait for a rate rise or buy the common shares? It's double-whammy now, because rate-reset are going lower and you get less of a value with the spread. Every 5 years they reset to a spread above Canadian government bonds. Also, ENG is an oil stock…

His third-largest holding in his personal portfolio. Has a product that goes into the USB port on your computer and allows you to reach into any computer, where you have authorization, around the world. Has been trading in a band of 3.5 cents to 5 cents. Currently at break even on earnings and cash flow.…

A land developer primarily in Alberta. They accumulate land and turn it into residential properties. A different way of playing the oil space in Alberta. Warning! One fund is about to be wound up so there will be a big block of this coming out one of these days.

If we learned anything about tariffs, it is lumber. STLC-T's pension liability is gone and they have a clean balance sheet. They have the ability to increase capacity. They remind him of the lumber debate. (Analysts’ target: $33.50).

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…

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.

Has a very good project in China. If you are okay with investing in China, there are two companies that stand out, this one and Sino Gold. Not a fan of China.

Gold in Burkina Faso. Good management. His probabilities of success are very good based on management's previous success in selling a gold mine. Have started drilling. Speculative.

He doesn't invest in building small mines like Redstar. They continue raising money to build it, so market share is increasing, but your market share price is flat or declines. He wants something that's good enough that a major will buy it out.

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.

Doesn't know the stock that well but based on what he does know, it's in a favourable place. Undervalued. If the mining cycle continues, you should see good performance out of this one.

A typical Sprott speculation. It is either going to really work or really not work. The discovery hole was spectacular, although an odd style of mineralization for where it was in northwestern BC. Management is very credible. Don’t use money that you can’t afford to lose some of.

A tricky one. Have a very small mine in Ireland that they are trying to put into production as well as a small jewellery division. There is no clear indication of what they are trying to be. Gold deposit is very small.

Their unique cameras will be transported up on the Soyuz spaceship.

(Market Call Minute.) They lost a customer which really concerned him. Have very high customer concentration and until he finds out what is going on with that customer he would consider this as a Hold.

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 fairly new start-up company. Management has worked for different apparel companies in the past. Doesn’t follow this closely. They are billing themselves as kind of an upstart between Under Armour (UA-N) and Lululemon Athletica (LULU-Q) in that they have athletic wear for both women and men. Hasn’t done a lot of work on this,…