COMMENT
Lithium.

She's looking at the sector, but hasn't found the right investment vehicle. When an area becomes topical, valuations get ahead of themselves. Has a lot of potential, especially with EVs.

HOLD

Interest-rate sensitive, sector's out of favour. More debt, because they invest in hard assets. Generates steady stream of cashflow, indexed to inflation over time. To assess, look at cashflow from operations. Distribution safe. Likes the space, keep holding.

DON'T BUY

Prospects depend on commodity price. Her energy exposure is through pipeline stocks, whose cashflow is more defensive than that of a producer. For yield, go to the pipelines. ESG is a headwind to producers in general.

WEAK BUY

Has done well. Likes the sector. She owns WSP instead, but STN is a reasonable investment.

DON'T BUY

Has a financial services division, so delinquencies could tick up in this economic environment. Not a strong unit growth grower. Well penetrated in Canada. Traffic could soften, stock's pulled back. Not interested.

TOP PICK

Core income stock. Time to build a position. Reaffirmed annual dividend growth of 4-6% until 2028. Investment-grade balance sheet. More than 50% of revenues are from US. Reasonable payout ratio. Yield is 4.3%, and grows every year.

(Analysts’ price target is $57.95)
TOP PICK

#1 global share in biscuits. #2 in chocolate, and growing its share. Very little private label competition in biscuits and chocolate, huge brand loyalty. A name to own for the decade. Increased both prices and volume. EM is higher growth, but cyclical. Divesting and redeploying capital. Raised EPS guidance to 12% YOY. Reasonable multiple. Yield is 2.38%.

(Analysts’ price target is $82.44)
TOP PICK

Financial information services. Highly profitable. Very high margins of 45-46%. Scalable. 72% recurring revenues. Great growth story for the longer term. Yield is 0.95%.

(Analysts’ price target is $446.86)