HOLD

Many oil and gas services companies under pressure, both here and in US. Concern that energy prices will be lower under Trump. This name might have tariff concerns as well. Good investment long-term.

BUY

Last few years have seen a resurgence of investment in space. Secured contract to build satellites for AAPL contractor. He's been buying recently, not that expensive. Exceptional long-term growth.

WAIT

Can benefit from electrification and selling transmitters and generators. Pulled back, but still not cheap; if that continues, might be worth dipping your toe in.

BUY ON WEAKNESS
Add more now, or wait?

He'd lean towards adding near term. Stock's beaten up, has rallied off lows. Cheapest valuation of all Canadian banks. Less exposed to US tariff risk, as it has a big US presence. Leadership change, Schwab sale, share buybacks.

DON'T BUY

Not entirely clear to him what future of back-to-the-office is. Not sure we'll have the same office boom we did pre-Covid. Lower 10-year yield in Canada is helpful, but other sectors in the space are preferable.

HOLD

Controversial name. Rallied recently, takeover and breakup speculation. If you still own it, worth hanging on to for a potential event leading to more upside. 

DON'T BUY
Announced today selling Helly Hansen.

Market approves. Part of an effort to return focus to core retailing. Buying a high-end brand like this was perhaps off-strategy. Good business, but facing headwinds like weaker CAD, trade war risk and potential consequent recession.

WATCH

Powerful brand, great loyalty program, flights seem full. Concerns around trade war and cancelling US trips. Hurt by weak CAD, so concerns around input costs and margins. Buying back stock. Low valuation, decent time to look at it.

TOP PICK

Global tri-opoloy. High barriers to entry. Stable industry that's grown ~6% a year for 30 years, never a down year. New growth avenue of iLottery, which is very high margin with a different demographic base. Well managed, insider ownership strong, margins improving. Low valuation for high-quality company. Yield is 0.8%.

(Analysts’ price target is $40.33)
TOP PICK

Monopoly-type business. 30-year contract on Saskatchewan land registry services. Trades at ~8x EBITDA. Generates about 11% free cashflow yield. Yield is 3.5%.

(Analysts’ price target is $34.00)
TOP PICK

A way to participate in Brookfield's excellent track record of private-equity investments. Owns companies like the largest residential mortgage insurer in Canada, and one producing low-voltage automotive batteries globally. Big discount of ~30% to NAV. Yield is 1%.

(Analysts’ price target is $45.46)
BUY

Seems to have stabilized and is on the way back up.

SELL

After holding it a long time, he sold it. They had a weak quarter with slowing growth a lot. The CEO is retiring. GXO is an acquisition candidate, but isn't sure if growth will resume.

COMMENT
Reuters/ISOS poll says 53% of American feel the economy is on the wrong track vs. 43% in Jan. 24-26

The S&P is hitting a new high today, but it's on low volumes on a vacation week. Point is, money is not coming in off the sidelines and won't sell either. Rather it will wait and see. Meanwhile, we will see atrophy. This isn't about left or right politics. He needs to see a clear path forward--stability--so he knows where the economy is going. He's spoken to private equity, CEOs and bankers and they're all flummoxed--where is this economy going?

PARTIAL SELL

He trimmed 20%. Bitcoin's momentum reversed after peaking at $105,000 at Trump's election, but is now going down. Expectations have changed from a golden age in the markets and business when Trump was elected, but none of those expectations has proven true. For example, we keep saying that 25% tariffs are a negotiating tool, but will we come out of it with 10%? We used to look at Putin as a dictator and now it's Ukraine's Zelensky. The point is, there's great instability. Sure, government agencies are bloated, but CEOs would feel better if there was a communicated strategy about why and how Trump will make these cuts. All this adds up to instability--and CEOs don't like instability, so they don't want to make investments. Overall, he's not a seller, but a trimmer, but he's not investing not capital either. Regulations won't change; Vance has doubled-down by saying big-cap tech is too big.