BUY
Add more at current levels?

Wonderful company. He took advantage of recent weakness to add. Global. Good at capital allocation. Generates tons of cash, with lots of options for what to do with it. Last quarter was choppy by company's standards. Very attractive valuation.

Unique, because this business is hard, and not many can generate the margins they do. As they've gotten bigger, can consolidate sourcing and this further helps margin profile. This is their unique advantage over competitors.

DON'T BUY

Steer clear. Generally, retail is a tough industry. Not good insulation from online competition. Wary of retail that's not specialty. Would prefer HD, ORLY, or dollar store segment, but wait for pullback.

Tends to be a more economically sensitive retailer. Could benefit from rate cuts and an uptick in discretionary spending. But rate cuts would intensify competition. Good portion of profitability comes from its financial services (credit card) business. 

BUY ON WEAKNESS

Generally, retail is a tough industry. Wary of retail that's not specialty. Look at HD and ORLY, which are specialty retail, but wait for a pullback.

BUY ON WEAKNESS

Generally, retail is a tough industry. Wary of retail that's not specialty. Look at HD and ORLY, which are specialty retail, but wait for a pullback.

WATCH

Recently started to take a look, but he's not ready to buy yet. Opportunity, even if topline business stays relatively flat, will come from margin improvement. Unique business. Beneficiary of power demand from data centres, hard to handicap the odds of upside right now.

WAIT
Get in for the dividend?

Doesn't think dividend will be cut, company has always been firm on this. Don't get in right now, dividend yield has risen dramatically to 9% as stock's come down. Intensified competition, financial performance of all telcos will get worse. More bad news to come in subsequent quarters.

BUY ON WEAKNESS

Probably one of the best capital compounders in the world. But the secret's out. Very few years that it hasn't had a positive return. (Research reveals that going back to 2006, 2022 was the only year not positive.) Excels at small deals that private equity firms won't do, and this lets them keep growing. Spins off lots of cash. Loves it. Valuation is rich.

Don't focus on PE. There are some nuances to amortization that make earnings look quite low, and PE look in excess of 100x. Look at price-to-cashflow or FCF yield. Trades somewhere around 30-32x cashflow, fairly reasonable multiple, comparable to a MSFT. Wait for a pullback, if you can get it.

Everyone wants it, so they pay up for it. There hasn't been a year in his career that he hasn't been able to add it to client portfolios. Take advantage of volatility on a bad quarter or headline news. Don't chase, just be patient.

DON'T BUY

Ultimate hype stock, speculative. If you look at the operating fundamentals, margin profile isn't good and FCF is less robust. Those fundamentals are weakening. Last quarter was negative, expects disappointment in upcoming reporting. If your heart's set on it, wait for that, may drop further. 

Previously, always able to overcome negative sentiment with growth. Competitive pressures, especially out of China, are intensifying. Valuation always implies that its future is more than just a car company, and this is too tough for him to handicap. Consumer preferences have changed, tilting more to hybrids.

BUY

Lots of upside as they restructure and optimize operations. Valuation still quite reasonable. FMV somewhere between $140-160. Good amount of upside.

WEAK BUY
META vs. GOOG

Broad market driver now is AI. To benefit from, and optimize, AI, you need data. Only the Mag 7 have massive data. Both are plays on digital advertising. 

He's chosen GOOG, as it's a bit more essential than META. Both have a fairly reasonable valuation, though META is a bit more of a value play right now. To buy GOOG, wait for pullback.

BUY ON WEAKNESS
GOOG vs. META

Broad market driver now is AI. To benefit from, and optimize, AI, you need data. Only the Mag 7 have massive data. Play on digital advertising. A bit more essential than META. Both have a fairly reasonable valuation, though META is a bit more of a value play right now. Above his buy price right now, wait for pullback.

BUY
Preferred shares.

He does invest in some selective preferred shares for some clients with balanced mandates. Unique because BPY.UN used to be a separate, publicly traded company, so you got full transparency. But then Brookfield privatized it, so you don't get the same transparency. But Brookfield has always been a fairly good corporate citizen and stood by their issues, and they typically repurchase their own preferred shares in the market, making sure unitholders are not disadvantaged.

If you own it outside a registered account, collecting north of 10% on the dividend yield, it's a very tax-advantaged way to collect income. If you can get 10-12% here, versus 5% on a corporate bond where you're going to pay 50% tax on, the arbitrage is quite huge. Buy, or consider adding to your position. Whereas in a registered account, relative to bond yields, that kind of tax arbitrage isn't there, so not as attractive.

PAST TOP PICK
(A Top Pick Apr 20/23, Down 6%)

Stock price hampered by interest rate environment plus sentiment towards energy and pipelines. Very inexpensive. High dividend yield approaching 8%, with only a 66% payout ratio. Reasonable growth profile. Would buy today.

PAST TOP PICK
(A Top Pick Apr 20/23, Down 2%)

Flat over the year. Wonderful product portfolio. Structural driver is heart/cardiac business. Reported yesterday, topline growth 2%. This number is misleading, as cardiac organic growth was 14%, and organic growth outside of diagnostics was 10%. Performing well, growing quite well, reasonable multiple. He'd buy today.

PAST TOP PICK
(A Top Pick Apr 20/23, Down 1%)

Not used to being in the penalty box. Rumblings on succession planning. Overhang on money laundering and penalties, which hits all banks at some point. Well run, risk averse. Attractive valuation. Most excess capital of any Canadian bank, with options to acquire, buy back shares, or increase dividend.