Veeral Khatri

Markets. He doesn’t see systemic risks or gross overvaluation, but does see a premium valuation in the markets. That means he has to be a.) a little more selective in stocks he owns and b.) if he does get a little more cautious, how does he migrate the portfolio to a more cautious stance. To do this, he starts to look at larger cap names instead of owning a bunch of junior or intermediate companies.

Lumber stocks? The time to buy these is when there’s blood in the streets and everybody is negative and lumber prices have collapsed. Currently, the picture is very rosy. He can’t buy the stocks right now knowing that lumber is a very inherently volatile commodity. Wait for a pullback.

He plays the energy/pipeline space through Pembina (PPL-T) where he sees a better growth profile. Likes their backlog of projects and the 5% dividend yield. Also, they are diversified amongst different commodities. Doesn’t think you will go too far wrong owning TransCanada.

His preferred way to play the energy space right. He likes that they have a very stable balance sheet. At $55-$60 oil, they are cranking out a good amount of cash flow out of the oil sands. They are diversified with downstream operations, which moves out the cash flow profile. They’re returning cash back to shareholders. A good holding.

He loves US banks in general. The outlook for US financials for 2018 is that there are a lot of positive things happening. Rising interest rates are very good for banks and their net interest margins. Deregulation is going to alleviate some of the cost pressures. Also, it looks like tax reform is getting to be a closer reality. This is trading at only 13-14 times earnings. You get paid a nice dividend, and they are buying back shares.

Spending a significant amount buying back shares. This company is in a great spot. One of the few retailers in North America that is not impacted by the on-line phenomena. Most purchases is on an “at need” basis by contractors. It’s very insulated from the on-line phenomena. Valuation is getting expensive and is trading at a premium multiple to the market at around 24X. One of the few retail companies you can buy without worrying about Amazon or some other online retailer. He would like to see a pullback before stepping in.

An old tech company that is undergoing a significant transition. Ultimately, they are going to be successful. It may take another year or so of flattish earnings, but after that they are really going to hit their stride with their software and services offering. Shares are very cheap, trading at 11X earnings.

He likes the company and it is a very resilient business. Management is world-class and are always innovating and finding ways to reinvent themselves. His concern is the valuation. Trading at 15X on an EV to EBITDA basis, which doesn’t give a lot of room for error. He would like to see a pullback before getting in. 2.3% dividend yield.

(A Top Pick June 19/17. Up 8%.) This offers the most compelling value of any of the FANG stocks. Trading at a little over 20X earnings, but you are getting 20% earnings growth, which is a really compelling value. This company is going to be in great shape to exploit the whole AI thing because of the amount of data they can capture.

(A Top Pick June 19/17. Up 6%.) He still likes this. It is in a great position. They acquired Veresen which did a lot of things for them. It was a financial accretive deal, and diversified their hydrocarbon mix to more natural gas. It gives them a really good pipeline of growth projects. We should start seeing the benefits of that. It gives you a 5% dividend yield, which will grow at 10% a year.

(A Top Pick June 19/17. Down 5%.) The stock hasn’t done much. It is a really interesting company. They have a property/casualty insurance business and an asset management business. Both sides are in good shape and the outlook looks really good. If we get a hard insurance market, the returns on that side of the business will be quite good. On the asset management side, they’ve done a good job of growing their AUM. This is going to be a long-term position for him.

He is staying away from investing too heavily in staples and telecoms, but the valuation on this is very compelling. Trading at 7X EBITDA, a very cheap multiple and a 5% dividend yield. They’ve spent the last few years spending a significant amount of capital on building out their 5G network. We are now hitting the inflection point where in 2018 they are going to start to harvest some of the cash flow back. Most of the heavy lifting has been done on capital spending.

This is going to do fine. They have excellent renewable energy assets. The valuation is a little more expensive, but these types of renewable businesses should trade at a premium multiple. The valuation is not overly expensive.

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 groceries at $10 a box. He would stay away from the whole group.

Recently sold his position. They have exposure to some very good parts of the industrial sector, such as aerospace, power generation, renewable power, healthcare, etc. In spite of this, the company is not doing well. Cost control has not been great. The amount of debt on their balance sheet is significant.