COMMENT

These are apartments. In the real estate sector, the apartment sector tends to have the shortest lease term and tends to be the most defensive asset class amongst all the real estate subsectors. He likes the sector in general, but doesn’t own this one. His big knock on US apartments is excess supply. Thinks this will peak in 2017 and gradually moderate, and then you should see fundamentals improve, especially given the potential uptick in consumer incomes on the back of a tax cut in stronger employment. Payout ratio is relatively good at about 70%. Dividend yield of just under 5%.

BUY

A pretty good entry point. It will give you a relatively attractive dividend. They have a new management team, so the company is in transition. Their priority is going to be to rationalize the product line. They sell into emerging markets, so it is good way to get exposure to the growth in the middle-income population, which is going to double in the next 15-20 years. Good dividend.

COMMENT

A relatively decent name. There is going to be excess supply in 2017 which should moderate. If you look at the communities in the properties they own, they are really, really good. Excellent management team. Payout ratio is relatively low at around 60%. They have a sustainable dividend. Valuation looks pretty compelling, trading at about 20% discount to NAV. Dividend yield of 4.1%.

COMMENT

This has medical office buildings in other parts of the world like Brazil, Australia, New Zealand. There are a lot of cross currency issues. Has a relatively high payout ratio. He prefers other names in terms of risk/reward.

DON'T BUY

A mortgage REIT. They leverage the slope of the yield curve, to invest in mortgages. Rising rates are not necessarily a good thing for them. It really all revolves around their ability to leverage the spread in the yield curve. There is also some reinvestment risk. If existing pools of mortgages are maturing at higher rates than what you can invest in, that impairs profitability.

HOLD

A relatively stable name. Sold off a lot, primarily related to interest rate concerns as well as some of the grocery store challenges. Thinks it offers pretty good returns here. 6.6% yield.

COMMENT

When looking at European telcos, there are other names he would prefer. This is the 800-pound gorilla in Europe. European economic growth has been lacklustre. They are going to have a hard time managing churn and driving average revenue per user higher. Dividend yield of 6%+.

TOP PICK

He tries to gravitate towards companies that have very good defensible businesses with dominant positions. This is definitely one of those, if you think of how much of the mobile ad market they dominate. Also, their participation in the oligopoly of the Cloud. Very rarely can you get exposure to a company like this, at a multiple that is close to the market multiple. They are demonstrating relatively resilient growth. Mobile ad sales growth is going to slow, which should be offset by an increase in Cloud spending which should go up quite significantly for the next 5 years. (Analysts’ price target is $967.70.)

TOP PICK

Merged with Jarden which also made a lot of household consumer oriented goods. That merger is important, because it gives them an opportunity to look at the Jarden business, which historically had been very acquisitive. They will be able to streamline it, rationalize the product skew, and derive significant synergies of over $500 million, which should result in significant earnings growth, and hopefully dividend growth down the road. A great way to play improved household formation in the US with increasing wages and rising consumer spending. Dividend yield of 1.57%. (Analysts’ price target is $60.)

TOP PICK

The largest food and drug retailer in Canada. The stock has come off a lot. Rebounded very recently. The concerns regarding food price deflation are a little overdone, in that they are somewhat self-inflicted. This company lowered prices to try to be a little bit more competitive, and are going to start to demand concessions from some of their suppliers which should stabilize things. They generate a substantial amount of free cash flow. Dividend yield of 1.5%. (Analysts’ price target is $79.31.)

N/A

Market. The strangest thing is the obsession with the election. This is probably a huge opportunity, because you have the Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate within the Congress. They control the presidency, so we are going to get tax reform. We are going to get deregulation which is massively bullish. The market is pricing in a number of rate increases. There has been a significant increase in long-term yields. The marketplace is saying that it thinks interest rates are going to be higher and that the financial repression is ending. This is hugely positive and hugely bullish.

COMMENT

His 1st recommendation would be to not buy Index ETF’s. He doesn’t know why this index should reflect Germany’s economy. Indices are not countries. He doesn't owns any companies in Germany right now because he has concerns about the euro.

COMMENT

The euro is going to affect how this security trades. This has significant exposure to emerging markets, and he has a negative view about them. Also, he is not comfortable that they have properly provisioned their loan book. In Spain, there is increasing competition to originate loans, and loan spreads are being competed away.

COMMENT

There is very limited upside to US Steel selling prices before imports can come in. In order to call for higher levels, one has to assume that there will be draconian trade barriers put in place, which is possible. There are other steel stocks to choose from. The only argument that would make this company the preferable trade, is if the oil country tubular goods market does much better than other end uses. This company, unlike other producers, has a significant exposure to oil country tubular goods. He thinks the market is pricing in some combination of protectionist measures, and possibly some incentives for domestic oil production. As a value investor, a lot of things have to go right before he invests in this.

COMMENT

Has never owned this, because of its valuation. He has never been able to understand how they were able to continuously execute and doesn’t understand why there is so little competition in an insulin.