Trans Mountain Pipeline acquisition by the Federal Government. He is not happy with the oil situation and he thinks this acquisition is a tragedy and didn't have to happen. It is all the fault of the Trudeau government. The government went on and killed Northern Gateway, went a step further and said no tankers would be allowed on BC coast, they made the regulation such that Energy East had to be cancelled. Then they were left with Trans Mountain and it blew up. Trans Mountain could have been cancelled if the other projects had gone ahead. The Kinder Morgan stock is slightly up today, but there isn’t much left in Kinder Morgan to grow, there is some oil storage left, but there is not much left to grow, so it’s only going to go up so much.
He used to own it personally, but not for their clients. Cigarettes are the most profitable business in the world because customers are relatively price insensitive. They produce a product that is addictive for the customers, which makes for a great company and a great industry. Problem now though is that tobacco usage is falling off faster than people expected. It’s still early in the game for e-cigarettes but they aren’t coming up as successfully as expected. Consumers products stocks are underperforming, they were great until interests rates started going up. He sold his holding.
One of the most disappointing stock in the U,S market. Has gone from a market leader to a marker lagger to say the least. New CEO is reevaluating every businesses and selling of or joint venturing. That’s going to take some time. He caught the dividend which people didn’t like. Stocks seems to have reached a bottom now. He thinks its a safe stock to buy for longer term value investors.
Concerns about Italy potentially leaving the Euro. There was some sell off today amid concerns about Italian government could take country out of Euro. That would be very bad for Europe and for markets. They have been expecting the market to sell off and have improved their cash. This could be the catalyst and give an opportunity for people to move into value stocks and small caps and away from the market leaders.
(A Top Pick June 16/17, Up 24%) Quite happy, still owns it and keeps buying for clients.The biggest industrial maker of pumps. They’ve increased their dividends for 42-43 years. Nobody cared about their products but now are drawing more attention. A play on water as well, which is a market they like.
(A Top Pick June 16/17, Up 2% ) Sold it early April. This was a growth company until recently, but since the financial crisis has done very little and not much to improve shareholder values. Management is competent but nothing special. The Desmarais sons haven’t proven themselves and haven’t done as well as their father and they still have a lot of influence in the company.
(A Top Pick June 16/17, Up 12% ) Likes pharma and owns a couple of them. The time to buy is when they are facing a patent clift, and their biggest drugs are coming off-patents and the company has to find new drugs or buy other promising companies. Pfizer was one of those when they bought Wyeth. They have a big consumer products division, which provides lots of cash flow, good earnings but not huge growth, which they put up for sell recently but couldn’t really find a buyer. Still likes it longer term.
Owns it. Has been a great stock for them for many years, had some issues more recently. Had some issues because they couldn’t get Northern Gateway to pass. They own pipelines, gas utilities, wind farms, etc. which gives a guaranteed rate of returns, but you need to grow, so they wanted to do Northern Gateway but that was taken away from them. Now in the process of replacing Old line 3 going through the U.S., hopefully that will go through. But most recently bought Spectra Energy and probably took on too much debt to do that. Thinks its over sold now and will see some recovery. Not going to make a lot of money with pipelines and utilities while the interest rates go up.
He hasn’t been a fan of marijuana stocks. Thinks its way too early. Some companies will be winners and the rest will be losers, and you still don’t know who the winners are going to be. The biggest problem is valuation, even Canopy’s CEO has been questioning valuation. You are starting to see officers and directors starting to leave cannabis companies knowing those stocks aren’t worth what they are, but being insiders they are being restricted from selling, and they actually have to leave to start selling, and we’re starting to see that.
One of the biggest life insurance companies. Spawned off the individual insurance part in a company called Brighthouse earlier this year. MetLife has been hurt lately by some controversy. In the long run still likes the outlook for both Brighthouse and Metlife, and rising interests rate do help insurance companies a lot.
An electronic manufacturer, they make stuff for other companies. Their biggest customer is Cisco. They have plants around the world. It’s an up and down industry because you are dependant on how other companies do. They are starting to turn around, earnings projections is going up, bought back about 30% of their stock, they have a ton of cash. Raised their guidance. He likes the outlook. Doesn’t pay a dividend. (Analysts' price target $12.34)