Latest Top Picks

Stock Opinions by Fred Pynn

DON'T BUY
BCE Inc.
Not very inspiring. In a serial restructuring. Company is really levered to wall telephone services. That business is shrinking. Prefers Telus (T-T) were you have over half the company levered towards wireless. As a pure income play, it's not bad, but no growth.
telephone utilities
BUY
Telus Corp
Prefers Telus (T-T) and Rogers (RCI.B-T) over BCE (BCE-T). Over half of the company is levered towards wireless.
telephone utilities
BUY
Prefers Telus (T-T) and Rogers (RCI.B-T) over BCE (BCE-T). Lots of growth and is really turning around.
Cable
DON'T BUY
Nortel AS
Still very difficult to see with clarity where the growth is going to come from. The whole sector is still in a basic restructuring mode.
Telecommunications
BUY
Positive on both Canadian Pacific (CP-T) and Canadian National (CNR-T) railways. This one is not quite the same quality in terms of their route network. Has higher costs than CN but they are bringing them down. Cheaper. Good management.
Transportation
BUY
Positive on both Canadian Pacific (CP-T) and Canadian National (CNR-T) railways. Lowest cost of any North American Railway. Their 2nd quarter was right on track. Prices probably dropped because of concerns of economics in the US. Price is getting very attractive.
Transportation
BUY
The whole financial sector fits into a value mode. Strong, long-term growth potential. A good area is the property/casualty area. Just pre-announced some weak results as a re-evaluation of their losses from the hurricanes last year.
insurance
DON'T BUY
West Fraser Timber
Longer term, excellent management, great assets. Made an acquisition that gave them a lot of synergies. Unfortunately, they are still dependent on the price of lumber. Housing starts are rolling over because of concerns of interest on the housing market.
west coast forestry
DON'T BUY
In the metals/minerals area, your views should be based on what you think is going on in the economy and what is going to happen to metal prices. If you are a long-term bull on India and China’s shortage of metal he would continue holding, but he is wary on the whole commodity sector.
Mining
HOLD
Berens Energy Ltd.
A heavily gas weighted junior producer. At this stage of the game, gas has been all beaten up and we are starting to see positive results.
oil / gas
HOLD
Loblaw Companies Ltd
Stock has not acted well at all. Believes the company is doing the right thing. Trying to reinvest in their business and position themselves so they can compete. Have had problems executing on their structure strategy, but fundamentally they're not broke and sales continue to go up.
food stores
BUY
Holding company. Continue to raise the dividend is all the time. Great West life (GWO-T) has been punished because of the large amount of business in the US. Lower profits because of currency. IGM Financial (IGM-T) continues to perform very well.
finance / leasing
HOLD
Inco
If you own, holding on is probably the smart thing to do.
integrated mines
PAST TOP PICK
Finning Int
(A Top Pick Mar 3/05. Up 15.5%.) Still likes. Could still be bought. The long-term play is as Caterpillar (CAT-N) gets its equipment into the field, this company benefits from the higher margin repairs/maintenance.
wholesale distributors
PAST TOP PICK
(A Top Pick Mar 3/05. Down 1.5%.) Continues to execute on its strategy. They are now going directly to consumers. Competition is getting a little tougher.
clothing stores
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