Jason Donville

Markets. For the small investor, you can’t “trade” in these markets. You can’t Buy on a Monday and Sell on a Friday and make money. You have to look beyond the noise. That can be painful at times, the same as it is for professional investors. Focus on companies that have enduring qualities that will be able to sail through the turbulence. Try to avoid turbulence in both directions, whether the market is going down or up. Focus on companies you want to hold for 3-5 years, and that hopefully you are going to get a triple over 5 years. Over the last few years, he has been investing in knowledge based industries. His weighting in the different areas has been fairly consistent over the last 12-18 months. Has about a 10% weighting in energy, but no other natural resources. Also, holding about 10% in cash. Other than that everything is in technology, healthcare or financials.

Canada doesn’t have a lot of great consumer product companies, so when one starts to emerge, people tend to take a closer look at it. This one had a few things, such as foreign exchange and coffee prices, that have been working in their favour. Not sure if results going forward are going to be quite as strong. Given the scarcity of good little companies, he thinks this one is going to continue to do well. Not overly expensive at this time. ROE is not quite what he is looking for, but is still pretty decent. Has been on his radar screen.

Has been a really frustrating stock, because they have a nice sustainable dividend yield of 9%-10%, but management recently attempted to do a transaction which would essentially allow them to buy out the company for next to nothing from shareholders. Feels the stock is weak right now people are concerned that management is not working in the best interests of investors. He has similar concerns. There is a dark cloud hanging over the management team. Thinks there will be some resolution on this. Just raised their dividend again and the payout ratio is low, so there is no dividend cut coming.

Colonoscopy clinics. His 5^th largest holding. Just delivered an excellent quarter. Very attractively priced, and run by a very honest management team. A very clean model of a health care stock. ROE is about 33% and P/E ratio is around 11%. Doesn’t believe there will be any equity financing, so no dilution going forward. Can’t think of a better company to own.

Canadian Banks? Thinks the outlook for banks is solid, if not getting better. The biggest issue overhanging them right now would be concerns on oil/gas loans going soft. With a rebound in oil now, it changes dynamics quite significantly. Most of their mortgage portfolios are insured. Dividend yields average 5%-5.5%, and we are basically in a zero interest rate environment. He likes Royal (RY-T).

He is neutral on this as a growth stock. The stock is cheap and obviously has done really well in the last 3-4 days. Management still needs to show us that they can manage this enterprise. Their last quarter was pretty good, but he is still not convinced they have got the model right. He has a “wait and see” attitude. Very inexpensive, which is positive, but haven’t really shown they can run a business yet.

A lot of this is financial services software. Very well-managed. Nice dividend. Because they pay out quite a bit, it’s not what he would consider as a high growth stock. This is a good stock, where you want some capital appreciation and some income. Doesn’t quite have the ROE he is looking for.

Great company. Kind of emerging into a kind of broadly-based industrial conglomerate. He is a bit reluctant on its valuation. It pretty much has everything he is looking for. Not cheap, so you are not going to get a lot of multiple expansion going forward. Could trade a little sideways because the share price is a little ahead of itself. Their over all strategy and execution is excellent. If it sold off 10%-15%, he would be a buyer.

(A Top Pick Feb 5/15. Up 41.69%.) Thinks they are shifting from a lot of little acquisitions to some really big ones that will come in once or twice a year. He continues to love this.

(A Top Pick Feb 5/15. Up 10.85%.) A great Steady Eddie. Sometimes has a little volatility, but recently put out a nice quarter. Recently announced they are buying back 7% of their stock from the Caisse de Depot. That will lower their denominators and ROE will be lower and will put EPS growth in. A great long-term holding, and will be for many years to come.

(A Top Pick Feb 5/15. Down 56.52%.) The story is not over yet. Everybody is waiting for this quarter. This is part of the business of investing. Sometimes you get them right and sometimes you get them wrong. If you own, continue to Hold.

A great company, with the $64 million question “what are they going to do with all their cash”. Too much cash is holding ROE down. Management said they are looking at stuff, but it has been a long time. The stock has performed well even without an acquisition, but if they finally acquire something, the stock will rocket ahead. If the same condition exists a year from now, investors are going to be very frustrated with management.

Auto body repair. They are so widespread, both in Canada and the US, your exposure to weakness to an individual state or province all washes out everything else. That’s what he likes about it. Great company. A really good Steady Eddie and has been a great long-term performer. Very high ROE in very good management. A great long-term buy and hold stock.

Has been a good company for the last 10 years, but their ROE is only about 12%-13%. He typically focuses on companies that have ROE’s of 22%-23%. This has the potential to have their ROE creep up, but to some extent the company is over capitalized. It has too much equity in relation to its profitability. Thinks it can do better.

Sold his holdings, not because there was anything wrong with the business, but the stock just got expensive in relation to its growth rate. The stock is looking pretty rich. Fundamentally it is a great company and he thinks you will still make money on the stock. This is a Hold, but if it goes lower it would be a Buy.