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Owns some of their preferred shares. Doesn’t think he would buy the common shares now. Has a huge insurance operation in many, many countries. He likes what they do. They made a major mistake during the recession, when they hedged on the basis of the market going to go down, but the market has done fantastic.
Has been suffering because of the increase in minimum wage in Ontario. Thinks the increase is a great idea. If you take people who are earning less than $12 an hour, and all of a sudden up their wages by $3 an hour, they are going to spend the money for the most part because they need to. That in itself will create jobs.
Does a lot of training in nuclear, chemical and oil/gas industries. He has had a double since he bought it, and thinks it can go up at least another 50%, if not double again. A beautiful company, in terms of financial ratios. They have no debt. They make money and have cut costs. Just did a small takeover that they expect to be accretive right away. He loves buying companies that have low debt or no debt.
Bought this last April at over $3, and it has come down since then. They have a few problems such as dealing with some lawsuits. One is obviously a rogue trader who was putting people into investments that were too risky for them. This is possibly going to court, and he doesn’t know how that is going to work out. GMP Capital has 2 sides. One is the energy side where they raise money for energy and mining companies, which has not been a great side. The other side is Richardson Securities, wealth management, which has been absolutely wonderful for them. Thought they would be taken over. He is quite content holding this, and can see how it can do a triple from this level. They had a lot of competition, but a lot of it has either folded or merged, so there is less competition.
It has done so well that he is not interested in it. He prefers companies that are out of favour. This has franchises, including Mr. Lube, Sutton Realty and Air Miles. Pays a great dividend, but has no idea how sustainable that is. Had a bit of a checkered past, so he is not as interested. If looking for a dividend player, and if this company can sustain their dividend, it could do very, very well going forward.
He’s lost a fair bit of money on this, but is happy to hold. The major problem they are facing is with the SEC. They thought they had settled and it appeared everything was good, but now the SEC has come back after them. That is ultimately going to cost them time and money. It is the kind of a distraction that a company really doesn’t need. Expects there will be some tax loss selling towards the end of the year, so you may be able to get in at a better price.
(A Top Pick June 28/16. Down 36%.) This was a bad pick all along. About every 3 years it has a spike, and the last one was around 2012 so it is now overdue. He is waiting for a catalyst. They have very little debt. It could take some tax loss selling before the end of the year, and he has it on his Buy list. Does digitization and a lot in the Tech Arena.
(A Top Pick June 28/16. Down 1%.) Has been hit along with the retail sector. Pays a dividend of almost 5%. Great balance sheet. They should be helped going forward, because the Cdn$ is going up, and they source so much from the US. He is a little concerned about their new athletic stores.
Gold bullion? One key thing you have to look at is if you are dealing with an MER (Management Expense Ratio) and what it is. Also, it is better to buy into certain companies, rather than buying into a whole smorgasbord of companies through a fund. Gold is not cheap, but also not particularly expensive. Thinks that a lot going forward is going to be via the US$, which he thinks is still too high. If it comes down, the price of gold should go up.
Thinks they have a definite a chance to survive. Have sales of about $9-$10 billion, and a huge debt load of around $40 billion. They have big problems, but the CEO says they are about where they want to be with the debt. Has all kinds of legal problems they have to deal with. Companies that do takeover after takeover and take on debt, generally get into trouble. Doesn’t feel it is cheap enough. If it got under $10, he might look at it.
Doesn’t know this well. It used to be on his Stopwatch List at around $1. One reason he liked the stock was because he liked management and thought they would do everything they could to do get out of the major hole they were in. They did it and it had a tremendous run. He doesn’t know the current financials.
A small California bank. This had been a big success. Had paid $4.01 in 2011, and sold it in June at $11.65, and there was a dividend all the way through. If he held it now, he would continue to hold it at the current price.