COMMENT

Has had a good move, and feels they are doing the right things. Their deal with Air Canada (AC-T) is going well. They’ve ordered more aircraft. This is a good situation.

HOLD

He keeps watching, hoping it is going to come back a bit so that he can buy it. He likes the industry. The acquisition they did and the consolidation has worked out well for them. The business is growing, and it pays a decent dividend that he thinks will increase over time.

HOLD

Money is flowing out of consumer related areas, and into the more cyclical areas of the market. Their earnings came out and they were quite good. They are building a large cash position and buying back stock, so are doing all the right things.

COMMENT

About half the banks’ revenues and businesses are retail in Canada, which is a cash cow. This bank’s strategy is international retail in Mexico, South America, etc. International retail is a higher margin business than domestic retail, but it is also more volatile. This is a core holding for him. (See Top Picks.)

COMMENT

He doesn’t own this, because it is a commodities/materials stock, and he would rather own energy in his economically sensitive sectors. This is a survivor, and is leveraged to coal, and then zinc and copper. They definitely came through the last 2 years, selling off some assets, and repairing their balance sheets. If you believe we are going to get an inflationary environment over the next couple of years, $27-$28 is a reasonable buy.

COMMENT

He owns this, but also owns a smaller position in Manulife (MLF-T). Likes both companies because the life insurance business is a cash flow machine. They have expanded into Asia, as well as into Wealth Management. Both companies will do well because of rising interest rates.

COMMENT

As a consulting business, this company is all about assets, which are the people. There is not a lot of capital need in the business. Their cash flow covers the dividend and whatever they need to spend on R&D, etc. They are not going to grow a whole lot, but are pretty good about turning out cash flow. The 4.08% dividend is safe.

COMMENT

This had been hurt. It was poking its head up and was starting to outperform, and then they did an equity issue which hurt them again. He cut his position in half last year. Expects the dividend will come back. As the year goes on, if oil prices stay at the $45-$55 area, the company does a good job at finding oil and bring it on cost effectively. He is going to continue to Hold. It will probably yield between 3% and 4% in dividends.

COMMENT

This is really a call on the auto cycle. 2017 will probably be another year of high sales, but not getting any higher. The stocks are trading like they are consumer cyclicals, and are kind of rolling over. Buying today, he is not sure you are going to make 20% or anything like that.

PAST TOP PICK

(A Top Pick Oct 8/15. Down 6.95%.) During this last year, it actually reached $14.50, so it has had a nice recovery. This outperformed when oil companies were getting creamed, because it had the best balance sheet. The attraction is that they have good growth coming. They expand their SAGD operations in the oil sands in chunks, so he believes they have 2, maybe 3 50,000 barrel chunks they can do over the next 3 years or so.

PAST TOP PICK

(A Top Pick Oct 8/15. Up 8.2%.) This is doing all the right things. They got beaten down with all the other pipeline companies, and have come back significantly over the period. He is looking for dividend increases of 10% in 2017.

PAST TOP PICK

(A Top Pick Oct 8/15. Up 31.45%.) If your time horizon is 3-5 years, this would still be a Buy, maybe a 3rd of a position. All the banks will benefit from rising interest rates, because they will be able to expand their margins over time. (See Top Picks.)

HOLD

They’ve done a great job. Just did an acquisition in the US. They are going to increase their dividend 8%-10% per year over the next couple of years. This could come off further with interest rates. He will probably be looking to increase his holdings in utilities over the next 12-18 months.

COMMENT

Has a very small position in this. A well-managed company. The Shoppers acquisition is going along very well. Typically, these food retail companies do very well when inflation is going up, so if we get a rise in inflation in the next couple of years, it will be good for them. However, money is coming out of consumer stocks and going into the more commodity oriented stocks.

COMMENT

In the short term, they are going to do well because of their wealth management business and rising interest rates. Longer-term, the money coming out of the life insurance side, the cash flow, is being reinvested into life insurance businesses in Asia, which is the only growth market in life insurance that there is. He will be buying this for new clients.