PAST TOP PICK
(A Top Pick May 13/05. Up 6%.) The yellow pages business in Alaska. Trades at a 8.75/9% yield. Have stabilized their currency. Tight payout ratio. Could become a takeout target.
BUY
One of his favourites. Pays out less than its net income in distributions, reducing debt, remerchandising and reformatting stores to improve its operating margins. Located in a market were it's dominant. Well managed.
WEAK BUY
One of the larger power names. Yield is relatively low. Management contracts was recently sold to Epcor and will be very interested to see what Epcor does with this platform. Will probably be more aggressive than what Trans Canada was. Underweight this sector so he doesn't own at present but will own again propbably.
DON'T BUY
Tries to make good assesments on all securities that they buy. Got bagged on this one. Disappointed in their cash flow. Trying to see management to look at issues.
BUY ON WEAKNESS
On any sort of dip, he would be a buyer. Big fan of the First Pro Development company which is slowly doing a reverse takeover of Calloway.
BUY
90% payout ratio and a 7.4% yield. Likes the business. Comfortable with gas at $8/9.
BUY ON WEAKNESS
Had modestly disappointing results recently. Likes this trust. Has not been adding to his holdings recently, but if the market pushes this one down he would add.
HOLD
In the short term, some of these names are getting extended from a price point of view. Longer term, it is a very well managed trust.
BUY
One of his tier 2 positions. Into tier 2, not because of management, but because of underlying assets. Good management. Slowly improving the assets.
BUY ON WEAKNESS
He's schizophrenic on this one. He's a value investor and is concerned when he has to spend too much on production and reserves, but they continually deliver. They have identified tight gas as a theme.
BUY
They've restructured and got rid of their US sales force which was a very important decision. Have made a lot of effort to change their corporate financing. The issue is that they have one drug which is a large percentage of their overall revenue. Very cheap and throws off lots of free cash and trades at $1.75/1.85 on earnings.
BUY
Really likes this company. Has a large dividend yield. Trades at a very low multiple. Has grown by acquisition and because of a lot of the regulatory issues they've had, the Fed has said they can't make acquisitions. Well diversified. A global company. Have sold off a lot of assets and the market hasn't given them credit for that.
TOP PICK
An office supply company. Made a large acquisition, took on lots of debt and the economy fell apart. Sold a large business they were in and reduced the debt considerably. Rebalanced their balance sheet by buying back preferred stock. Has great organic growth. All B to B business, no retail stores. Top 4 management owns 18%.
HOLD
A smaller player where its larger competition has made a lot of acquisitions. Like a lot of the majors, when oil prices were low, they didn't spend a lot of money on exploration so reserves are down. Expect it will catch up over a longer period of time.h
HOLD
Have done a lot of restructuring. Will cut their costs which will help. Part of the problem in the pharmaceutical industry has been the poor leadership in the FDA. A cheap stock and you're getting paid a 3.5% yield. Trades at a very low multiple.