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

They have been one of the best growth by acquisition company in Canada. It is leveraged but they have been buying $500 million every quarter. At this pace they will have lots of cash to play around with in 2-3 years. Convenience store purchases are uninterruptible. One of the better managed companies in Canada.

This has rebounded quite nicely off the low, and are showing signs that the turnaround is working. Whether to buy it today is a very tricky decision. He doesn’t think you can understate the impact of the on-line threat. They are dealing with razor thin margins, so what happens when they start shipping out their…

Avoid this sector. Competitive, paper-thin margins. Other sectors pay better dividends and have less volatility. Not enough of a dividend to justify holding through the sideways motion.

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.

This typically does really well from April to July, but once you get into July, it tends to move lower. We are now past the period of seasonal strength. Stay away from this for now. There are other opportunities.

It had an attack from the shorts but they failed to convince the market. 2/3ds of their business is in the US where they are just discovering hydrovacing. They generate great free cash flow and are very well managed. Buy it and sock it away. (Analysts’ target: $37.00).

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…

Closely tied with MG-T. 80% of revenues come from those properties. They have been trying to bring this down. The dividend is good and in fact it is probably the best performing REIT there is.

This fund is being taken out. Recommends putting your money into a tax deferral and high yield fund.

This REIT has been around a long time and holds a cluster of assets in Toronto, Vancouver and the US. Generally, it is well run and you could continue to hold it for the long term. He would prefer SRU.UN-T.

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.…

A very well-managed REIT. Has a portfolio of basically Walmart anchored tenants for its plazas. Has a good development team in place, so he expects they will continue to see growth. Very reasonable dividend at just over 5%. A name that you could buy over the next several years.

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.)

This is a good defensive stock -- trading to 52 week highs lately. Tariffs issues don't come into play with this one. It has a decent yield. A nice bump up in subscribers last quarter. A good company at an attractive price.

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

A media company that is building out their wireless platform, particularly in Western Canada. Doesn't feel any compelling reason to Buy this. Would rather own one of the national carriers. Dividend yield of about 4%.

This has fallen again. The issue is that they own 6 surgical centres in the US and there is competition coming into these markets. All the things that people worry about are in place and he is using this as an opportunity to get a position. They do own the buildings. Dividend yield of 8.46%.…

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.

ENB-T or TRP-T? He owns both pipelines. Today, he would favour TRP-T. He has also been watching PPL-T as well. The space has always been a good investment.

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.

They have totally different management. A good decade ino the past until it was up and trading. There were a lot of industrial companies in Canada in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. You are seeing a resurgence in the industrials. China has been the big importer of industrial steel and they just held a…

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,…