This has come up a lot this year, down about 33% YTD, partly due to the last 2 conference calls. Earnings had disappointed in both. Investors waited about 4 years for them to get their bank license which came in September, and it was going to be 6 months before benefits would be seen. In the last quarter, there wasn’t a lot of evidence of that. About 3 years ago, the company went into the payments business, and have been building up a business in that, so there were a lot of expenses, but no sales. Because of this, expenses have grown much faster than sales growth. They’ve built a lot of infrastructure, and they now need to grow into that. He has a lot of confidence in the CEO. Expects that the next quarter is also not going to be a great one.

Very interesting and quite sophisticated technology. The problem is, it is a hardware company. They always have a problem of fighting against a better and cheaper mouse trap. A Chinese competitor has been quite aggressive in pricing. He doesn’t like the long-term fundamentals. If he had to choose between a Long or Short position, he would choose the Short.

He really likes this. It used to trade at a significant discount to the utility sector, but it should have traded at a premium because of its better growth profile. He likes their US acquisition which was more on the HVAC business, so it is more on the service side, other than the traditional water heater business they’ve been in. They also have a sub metering business, which doesn’t get a lot of attention. Sub metering helps when you have multiple units such as condominiums or apartments. This has a nice growth profile, and has a decent yield to it.

Preferred B. Recently reported and had a reasonable set of numbers. What caught the public’s attention was the pre-release that Canaccord (CF-T) put out last week, where they had such an exceptional Q1 that they pre-released their numbers and the share price responded accordingly. GMP’s quarter was an OK one, but certainly not like Canaccord’s. However, it shows the potential of both businesses. GMP has really positioned themselves to be a strong leveraged play on the oil/gas and mining sectors. They also have an attractive asset management business that got a lot of focus last summer and fall, with the Richardson operation. A very attractive takeover candidate. He would want to see more evidence of recovery in the mining and oil/gas sectors and to start to see some of their investments come to fruition.

(A Top Pick April 26/16. Up 63%.) *LONG* (Pairs trade with a Short on Air Transat (TRZ-T). This trade is driven more by the Short side than the Long side. He would continue with this position.

(A Top Pick April 26/16. Up 8%.) An asset based lender to distressed companies. They deal with companies that banks won’t touch. A controversial name and is down about 20% in the last 2 days. It is in the midst of a privatization process and had 19 expressions of interest. They’ve reduced this down to 6 or less. The guidance range as from $18-$22. Given that the stock is trading at about $14 with a 7.5%-8% yield, the privatization announcement is scheduled to take place prior to the end of June. With less than 2 months’ horizon it is a pretty good risk/return in his view. He thinks he is going to have a very happy outcome 2 months from now.

(A Top Pick April 26/16. Up 165%.) Internet domain names was viewed as a very flat, dull business. He felt this was under the radar screen and not a lot of attention being paid to it. It is now trading 19X this year’s EBITDA, so it has gotten a little ahead of itself, and may be a little expensive.