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COMMENT

There are more foreign investors hedging on the U.S. currency so there will be further pressure on the U.S. dollar which he feels is facing a secular decline. There is more upside to gold since central banks are continuing to buy it as an alternative to the U.S. dollar.There is an estimated $36 trillion in debt which is increasing, and deficit spending is $1.4 trillion per year. 
There is an uptrend in commodities, especially copper due to the renewable energy space and EV's. This makes copper a more stable commodity and there are thoughts it could double to $10 in the next two years. Copper is a by-product of gold production. We should see many more mines started or re-started since there have no new mines for some time.

DON'T BUY

His company uses a base system which uses quantitative, technical and fundamental factors to rank stocks. In general the free cash flow average is 3.7%. The following benchmark may be useful: A Return on Capital of 1.1% is 1/3 of Canadian government bonds. CHP's dividend is 5.1% with a 73% payout ratio. Other stocks rank better on a total return basis.

COMMENT

Yields 5.6% with a reasonable payout ratio but the cash flow is not moving enough to increase the dividend. He held it but moved into a gold stock for better returns. On pipelines in general, there are not any in their 'OK to buy list'. 

COMMENT

It is an online lending platform. It is not in his data base. The host pointed out that it is up 60% in the past year, pays a 2% dividend, has a $1.5 million market cap and uses AI.

Unspecified

It ranks in the middle of the path. Has estimated earnings growth of 8% in 2025 and 5% in 2026. Free cash flow is down 21% year over year. Overall return of invested capital is less than 1/4 of 1%. If switching you could go to CIBC

Unspecified

It doesn't pay a dividend, Assembles materials for data centres and correlates to Nvidia. It has been switching to a more stable recurring revenue sysytem. He wonders about other developments coming and looks for dividend paying stocks with less volatility. He talked about Verses Tech on the Neo exchange (VERS) with a different method of machine learning and AI which uses less computer power and less electricity.

COMMENT

It isn't in his data base. The host mentioned its yield is just under 5% and it has a market cap of 660 million.

COMMENT

There was a discussion on stock buybacks vs dividends. He feels it is better to use cash flow to pay dividends which puts cash in the hands of the investors. He prefers companies to use their cash to go more directly to the bottom line rather than use a buyback program. Buybacks can make sense if the shares are undervalued.

COMMENT

Since the guest has not been on the show for four years there are no past picks. There was a general discussion on the reasons for pension funds not putting much of their money in Canadian stocks. He feels there are low returns on capital for quite few public companies and they can get better risk adjusted returns from outside of Canada. It is hard to find the best stocks. 3.7% is a typical free cash flow yield of U.S stocks. Historically 2.4% of stocks in the U.S. create most of the value.

DON'T BUY

It is shown as a sell. Its overall free cash flow of 2.5% is modest but standard. Look elsewhere for total investment opportunities in this sector, eg. Imperial Oil.

DON'T BUY

It is in bottom half of the data base but the payout is probably sustainable. ROC is negative.

DON'T BUY

It is always expensive. Has a ranking of 422, overall sales growth is modest and has a low ROC. There appears to be better opportunities.

COMMENT

It ranks 226. You could hold it but there are better opportunities in gold if it is heading to $4000, and better risk adjusted returns in other stocks.
In general the silver vs gold ratio has been bad but is turning the corner. There are no silver stocks in their top 25 'OK to buy list'

Unspecified

It is just below their minimum market cap requirement of $2.8 billion but ranks well in their data base and is reasonably priced. Its earnings estimates are set to decline by 45% this year and 63% next year. Much depends on the price of oil. Imperial Oil ranks better. 

COMMENT

He quoted from a technical analyst: "Nothing good happens below the 200 day moving average". Its dividend is 5.7% and the payout ratio is 45%. Earnings are expected to be down this year and the next. In general telcos are in a very competitive business and have very high debt to equity. They have some unused or little used assets. There are better risk adjusted returns elsewhere.

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