Latest Stock Buy or Sell? Make More Informed Decisions!

Allan Tong’s Discover Picks Overall, the quarter was mixed, though investors perked up on the daily active users numbers and the EPS beat of $2.72 above $2.56. The market bumped the stock from $174.95 to $205.73 the day after that report. Meta is out of the dog house, and is attractive at a 15x valuation. However, it will be investing in the metaverse through 2030. Reality Labs, its VR research and development arm, suffered $2.96 billion in losses in Q1 compared to $1.83 billion the previous year. (Meta will lower operating expenses this year, though.) It's too early to tell whether the metaverse will pay off or what it will even be. In the meantime, investors should keep in mind that Meta is a cash cow with an ad-driven business model generating $30 billion annually at a free cash flow yield of 11%. Sure, many governments hate Meta/Facebook, but it hasn't stopped people from using it. Read Are tech stocks alive? for our full analysis.

Allan Tong’s Discover Picks The world’s number-one streamer released its latest quarter on April 19 and it landed like a bomb. Shares tanked 25% the following day. IT came down to subscribers: a net loss of 200,000 in Q1 and a forecast of losing two millions subs in Q2. It was the first decline in subs since October 2011 and surprised the market. In fact, the company had projected an additional 2.5 million net subs in Q1. Netflix blamed rising competition, password sharing and the Russian war, though the street widely believes that the end of lockdowns is another big factor. Read Are tech stocks alive? for our full analysis.

Recession? Numbers are showing a significant slowdown as we're going into a tightening cycle. Higher chance of recession than not.

How to be more defensive? At the beginning of the year, it was easy. You just went to the bond market for protection against a slowing economy and volatile equity markets. But that didn't happen. Both bond and equity markets went down together, by 5-10%. It's been 100 years since a bond market has acted in that way, and it has a lot to do with inflation. He's more confident that the bond market is settling down. Early days, but we're seeing the heights of inflation modelling, though he doesn't have a high conviction on this.

Is there value anywhere? Sounds crazy, but energy and commodities still show significant value. The sectors were starved for capital, but the underlying product is up 4x. When oil is this high, the CAD should outperform, and it is outperforming all other currencies except for the USD. Oil sector has tremendous free cashflow. We're maybe 2/3 done in terms of share price appreciation, with another 1/3 still on the table. So you should still hold those types of assets. With everything else, it's hard. Growth has problems. At this point, some tech stocks are showing terrific value.

At this point, no, though they have good assets. Good at what they do. Valuation is high. The theme of owning rentals has fully matured. CAD strength is a headwind. Well run. Small cap, good job of growing.

Cut dividend by 50%. In midst of restructuring. Just bought Cominar's portfolio. Execution risk is very high. Occupancy levels below 90%. Missed on analysts' estimates. Lots of retail. Stay away and see what happens.

Large capex spend this year will finally finish fibre to the home, a tremendous advantage over cable. Good job in wireless. Trading high. Likes long-term vision, assets, management. Defensive in this environment. Yield of 4.5-5% is going to increase.

Sold because the apartment rental theme going into the pandemic had run its course. Higher utility costs, but lagging on increasing rents. Provincial rent control. Need large scale to counteract margin compression. Excellent managers. Valuation high.

REITs vs. Canadian banks Both benefit and get penalized from higher interest rates. Banks generally do better with higher interest rates because of higher net interest margin. Banks are in a good position. Problem is growth potential is being stymied because housing market will slow down. Canadian consumer is leveraged out, and banks will be dealing with defaults. For REITs, being punished by higher rates and valuations make them less attractive. Going forward, he'd rather buy REITs. Banks are vulnerable from a recession and a cooling housing sector. Banks really enjoy a steepened yield curve, but the curve is flat. Banks are down 2.5-5% YTD.

(A Top Pick Apr 08/21, Up 68%) A pandemic stock. Spectacular numbers, strong underlying margins. A leader, despite upcoming cost pressures. Trades at a discount to MRU. Still likes it, but ran its course for him. Cost inflation helps them. Shoppers has done well.

(A Top Pick Apr 08/21, Down 7%) Underlying bonds are illiquid and tied to a high duration. Should do better this year, as long rates will stay stable or drop, but inflation will be sticky.