| Comment | | American International Group | AIG-N | 33.680 | Their problem is very much like General Electric’s (GE-N). There’s a question if management can survive. If they can, the stock should do OK. | 2008-06-12 | |
| TOP PICK | | Lincoln National Corp. | LNC-N | 50.990 | Insurance company heavily involved in the annuity business for retirees. US baby boom hit 62 in January/07 and many people are considering retirement. | 2008-06-12 | |
| BUY | | H. J. Heinz Co. | HNZ-N | 49.540 | Current tomato scare is in unprocessed tomatoes. This company processes by cooking. Agriculture in general is very strong. Very well positioned to profit going forward. | 2008-06-12 | |
| BUY | | Deere & Co. | DE-N | 77.960 | Need for additional agricultural equipment as demand for food rises globally, will put a wind at their back. | 2008-06-12 | |
| WEAK BUY | | Paychex | PAYX-Q | 32.870 | Large payroll processing company. Very dependent on employment numbers. With employment under pressure, it kind of lessens its opportunities. Prefers Automatic Data Processing (ADP-N). (See Top Picks.) | 2008-06-12 | |
| BUY | | BHP Billiton Ltd. | BHP-N | 79.220 | Likes consolidation in the resource sector. Will be able to capitalize on the growth, especially in the emerging markets. Sees global growth and growing demand for commodities. | 2008-06-12 | |
| PARTIAL SELL | | McDonalds | MCD-N | 59.340 | Thinks there’s going to be some very interesting things happening with this company. Have been successful in extending their menus and have been successful globally. Benefited from the depreciating US$. If the US$ becomes stronger, it may weaken their returns. Consider trimming your position. | 2008-06-12 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Microsoft | MSFT-Q | 28.240 | Has gone through a tough time with the change in management. Vista launch was not as strong as hoped. Attempted unsuccessfully to acquire Yahoo (YHOO-Q). Not yet clear what they want to do. | 2008-06-12 | |
| Comment | | Bank of America | BAC-N | 29.440 | Believes dividends are sustainable in most of the US bank stocks. Far enough into the cycle on write-downs sub prime holdings, etc. that volatility should be over. Will be a while before it is a strong performing stock. It could have a bounce. | 2008-06-12 | |
| TOP PICK | | Automatic Data Processing | ADP-N | 42.600 | #1 in the business. | 2008-06-12 | |
| TOP PICK | | Caterpillar | CAT-N | 80.500 | Growth will continue in demands for their kind of products globally for agriculture, mining and infrastructure. Looking for US infrastructure boom with a new president. | 2008-06-12 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Sirius Satellite Radio | SIRI-Q | 2.400 | Looking to merge with XM Satellite (XMSR-Q) but there are problems on what they have said to the FCC. Also concerns if a lot of Americans will continue to drive cars. New subscribers to satellite radio have been weaker than expected. | 2008-06-12 | |
| BUY | | Visa Inc. | V-N | 64.350 | Will be treated as high growth and dividends won’t grow very rapidly. With any kind of retraction/recession, especially in the US, there could be some slowdown. However, their ability to grow outside the US is virtually unlimited. Not a bad time to get involved if you are prepared to hold it for 3 to 5 years. | 2008-04-15 | |
| TOP PICK | | Peabody Energy Corp | BTU-N | 63.970 | Largest coal company in the US. Positive energy pricing will continue to drive revenues higher. Have many contracts that have been signed a year in advance that are starting to roll off. Chinese demand will continue to drive up prices. The biggest negative is political because of it’s carbon. | 2008-04-15 | |
| TOP PICK | | Lowes Companies Inc. | LOW-N | 24.200 | A little more speculative in that the US is into about 6 quarters of the housing slowdown and has showed up in their earnings, but the company is still substantially profitable. Looking for the housing sector to stop dropping this year. | 2008-04-15 | |
| TOP PICK | | McDonalds | MCD-N | 55.960 | Great international stock. Profiting from the weakness in the US$. Very good at self-financing. If there is a slowdown in the economy, people might trade down from their local family restaurant. | 2008-04-15 | |
| Comment | | General Electric | GE-N | 31.980 | Not sure that given the performance of the stock over the last couple of years that the CEO will last. There is a lot of credit with them so it could negatively impact their earnings for a couple of quarters. | 2008-04-15 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Pfizer Inc | PFE-N | 20.710 | US pharmaceutical sector is under tremendous pressure. Starting to see a run off in many of the product portfolios and a wind down of patent protection. With the potential change of government he expects the whole sector will be under pressure. | 2008-04-15 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Transocean Inc. | RIG-N | 149.300 | Offshore oil business remains particularly robust however it is also the most volatile. If anything happens to break the price of oil, it could be a problem Very risky at these areas. | 2008-04-15 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Wachovia Corp | WB-N | 25.420 | Price is depressed, but could get worse. Financial stocks like this are to be avoided, at least for the next quarter, perhaps two. Still a lot od shoes to drop. | 2008-04-15 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Goldman Sachs | GS-N | 164.200 | Basically dodged the bullet with sub prime mortgages, etc. Could be opportunities for traders. Highest quality investment bank you can find. Expects additional regulations for investment bankers creating significant pressure on the stock and will be lack lustre for the next couple of years. | 2008-04-15 | |
| BUY | | Alcoa | AA-N | 34.840 | Will probably see basic materials types of stocks doing very well going forward. Have likely entered an inflationary cycle in the US causing dollar-based assets to inflated value and the ability to people selling materials to increase prices. There is also growth in demand, especially from the 3rd world. | 2008-04-15 | |
| BUY | | BHP Billiton Ltd. | BHP-N | 79.800 | There is a lot of growth going on in the 3rd world so there is an opportunity for pricing strength with their commodities. The one hitch in the road for them is that they are involved in attempted takeover of Rio Tinto (RTP-N). This could cause some distractions. | 2008-04-15 | |
| DON'T BUY | | State Street Corp | STT-N | 69.230 | One of the larger custodial banks and holds assets for pensions, profit sharing plans and mutual funds. The fee stream from this is probably very good and stable. Not sure the growth rate is very satisfactory to management, so started to get more aggressive and ended up hurting their reputation. Will have slow growth going forward. | 2008-04-15 | |
| BUY | | Corning Inc | GLW-N | 24.910 | Basically reinvented itself 3 times. From glass products, it evolved into fibre optics with explosive growth in the late 90s. Fibre optics collapsed and they moved into LCDs and screens. Willingness to move into different fields is a very strong point fo | 2007-09-10 | |
| HOLD | | Bank of America | BAC-N | 48.960 | Long-term outlook is excellent, probably better than the short-term outlook. Right now it is caught in the vortex of what is going on in the US financial system with questions revolving around subprime debts and the ability of banks to finance their hold | 2007-09-10 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Pfizer Inc | PFE-N | 23.960 | Many pharmaceuticals are faced with an uncertain political environment. This is more important than patent expirations. They are faced with a national health system in the US if there is a change in the government in 2008. | 2007-09-10 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Countrywide Financial | CFC-N | 17.210 | Stock had a ride with the boom in the US housing sector and has started coming down with it. Feels it will survive. This is a company that is very heavy in the service business. Its mortgage commitments will be running off rather rapidly and they should | 2007-09-10 | |
| BUY | | Adobe Systems | ADBE-Q | 43.220 | Very quiet stock in terms of visibility. Have hung onto their franchise associated with the PDF system and the transfer of documents. Very powerful tool in the office landscape. As Internet and office use grows, they will continue to succeed. | 2007-09-10 | |
| BUY | | Hewlett-Packard Co | HPQ-N | 49.000 | Very well positioned. Success came when they refocused on their consumer computer business and started taking market share away from Dell (DELL-Q). | 2007-09-10 | |
| BUY | | Texas Instruments | TXN-N | 35.220 | Very well positioned. Would stay with this company because of its access to Digital Light Processing (DLP) and the mobile phone business. Could easily go into the high $30's if the market settles down. | 2007-09-10 | |
| TOP PICK | | Colgate Palmolive | CL-N | 66.690 | This is a pretty difficult environment and this tends to be a very defensive stock. Will benefit from a variety of things including rapidly rising growth in emerging markets. Also has a large exposure in Europe, which is doing better than the US. If US$ | 2007-09-10 | |
| TOP PICK | | Pepsi | PEP-N | 68.460 | Has good product diversification. The ability to extend those lines has been their strength for many years. Global exposure. | 2007-09-10 | |
| TOP PICK | | Oracle | ORCL-Q | 20.170 | Beneficiary of what is happening in the computer world. Remains #1 in a lot of database operations. With growth of the Internet and willingness of consumers to purchase over the Internet, they are coming out with more sophisticated programs to keep track | 2007-09-10 | |
| BUY | | Coca-Cola Company | KO-N | 54.570 | Have had some difficulties but is now turning around and this is his reason for owning it. Global exposure. | 2007-09-10 | |
| BUY | | Proctor & Gamble | PG-N | 65.900 | Good international exposure. Has been very aggressive and very good in terms of treating its product offerings like a portfolio, i.e. spinning off products not growing fast enough and buying new ones. | 2007-09-10 | |
| BUY | | Goldman Sachs | GS-N | 183.610 | The leading investment bank in terms of reputation and its ability to deliver earnings. Somewhat like a public hedge fund in the way it makes its money. All of these companies are under a cloud 1) will they be able to make money going forward and 2) will | 2007-09-10 | |
Rss Top Picks Feed
