STRONG BUY

This has been a great stock performer. Even though revenue has gone from about $200 million to billions, the number of shares outstanding has been unchanged for 10 years. When you can grow without diluting your shareholders, it is brilliant. CEO owns $300-$400 million in stock. Now starting to do larger acquisitions. They have the ability to do third-party financing, where other people take the risk and they share in the profits. This is one of those great companies that you buy and 5 years later you will be happy.

COMMENT

A fine company that has done a very good job with their acquisitions. Earnings growth is looking much better these days. The dividend is looking better. A name that is heading to new highs, but doesn’t get much attention. A solid, consumer company.

COMMENT

Had this rated as an A-. It is now down to a B because they kept screwing up and missing earnings estimates. They also had a huge run-up in legal costs. Have signed quite a few deals. The big problem is that when they announce these deals they don’t disclose financial terms, and you have to wait for the next quarter to see if there is any significance to that deal. He likes the deals. Raised dividends 25% a few months ago, following the failed takeover. He thinks this has now transferred into just an income stock. It’s lost that exciting big deal takeover potential.

WEAK BUY

Have done a pretty good job of turning things around. They were in dire straits in the recession when they had overcapacity and their balance sheet wasn’t that great. Have bought back a ton of stock, and are now basically waiting for the economic situation to come to them. This is a later cycle economy stock. When business is so good in the tech world and people need third-party manufacturing that is when they really start to coin. Because they bought back a lot of stock, their earnings leverage will be really good at that point in the cycle. Still a little early for this kind of scenario, but for a 2 or 3 year time frame, you should be okay. Not a bad company.

BUY

One of those “under the radar” companies that is doing really, really well. Have 2 divisions. A “rent to own” in furniture, but their big growth division is Easy Financial, and this is where the stock has done so well. Easy Financial offers short-term loans to customers and the growth rate has been phenomenal. They have the locations in place and they have a captured customer base. A very natural cross sell to offer their existing customers more money in terms of loans. Solid growth, solid company and good market niche. Well-managed.

BUY

Likes management. In terms of natural gas exposure, he would put this as number 4 or 5 in terms of companies to own for natural gas exposure. Has done a great job. Good assets, good management, good geological prospects and a good team. A good one for this sector.

COMMENT

This is a management team that made a lot of mistakes in past cycles. Made some bad acquisitions. Over promised and under delivered. Nobody really liked them 5-7 years ago. They fixed that along with some of their production issues. Did better acquisitions. You now have a company that has very high leverage to the price of gold. Feels that GoldCorp (G-T) is the best senior, followed by Agnico (AEM-T) and then followed by this company. In the next gold cycle, it will do very well. You need the gold sector to move and right now it doesn’t seem to be doing a whole lot.

COMMENT

He did cover Astro, which merged with this company. Hasn’t yet picked up coverage of the new company, but the combined combination company is quite attractive. Valuation is very good right now. Solid balance sheet. Have lots of European exposure, which is getting much better. Good products and good cash flow. Still very, very cheap on a comparable basis to a lot of tech companies.

BUY

(Market Call Minute.) Same sort of scenario as Petrowest (PRW-T). Small Company in the oil/gas contracting engineering space. Stock got beat up because they missed earnings, but thinks in the long term it is fine.

DON'T BUY

(Market Call Minute.) Cut their dividend. There are lots of margin pressures as costs are going up. In the restaurant service business. No need to own it.

BUY

(Market Call Minute.) Huge deals that they’ve done over the past couple of years. Fabulous management team. The cycle is perfect for them.

DON'T BUY

(Market Call Minute.) Doesn’t see the point in paying a management fee to own 15 financial stocks. Just buy the banks yourself, save the fee and you’ll be fine.

STRONG BUY

(Market Call Minute.) Terminal operator. Great company and good cash flow. Good valuation. Definitely a Buy.

TOP PICK

TransForce (TFI-T) has an offer in to buy this and it is board approved. Transforce stock went up 10%. It’s $0.30 accretive to earnings, which at a 15X multiple is worth almost $5 to Transforce stock. Everybody loves this deal, which by default means it is a bad deal for Contrans. This stock, at $15 with a 15X multiple on next year’s earnings, is an $18 stock without a takeover. This is at the economic stage where earnings will start to ramp up. Yield of 3.97%.

TOP PICK

Got regulatory approval for their rational gaming acquisitions, which will make them the biggest public online gaming company globally. It is going to trans-straddle the consumer and technology sectors. A great, great growth company. Have done nothing but execute perfectly well in terms of deals and acquisitions. Management owns 26% of the company.