| TOP PICK | | Cisco | CSCO-Q | 27.310 | On a valuation basis, the US large cap technologies are pretty cheap. 19 X next year’s earnings. Video traffic is using 60% of the internet. They are the leader in internet protocol. | 2006-12-14 | |
| TOP PICK | | Samsung Electronics | 005930-KS | 0.001 | (Korean Stock Exchange) Samsung has such great technology, that next year, given what will be a turn up in memory, that there will be nan-flash use in a lot of mobile devices, feels the cycle will move again in their favour. | 2006-12-14 | |
| TOP PICK | | Qualcom | QCOM-Q | 39.410 | (A Top Pick May 6/06. Down 25.3%.) Nokia (NOK-N) decided to no longer pay royalties resulting in a lawsuit. Has yet to be resolved. G3 has been slow, but will happen. Good price. | 2006-12-14 | |
| HOLD | | IBM | IBM-N | 95.360 | Cheap at 14-15 X earnings. Not a fast growing company. More than 50% of its business is in services, outsourcing the IT operations. That grows 5%, maybe 6% a year, but they have been growing at 3%-4%. Would be good to hold if there is a correction. | 2006-12-14 | |
| BUY | | March Networks Corp | MN-T | 20.840 | Looking at buying it. Weakened because the contract with Wal-Mart (WMT-N) is now shared with a competitor. Getting more competition. Likes the deal with Bombardier (BBD.B-T) that gave them the ability to do monitoring on mobile platforms, such as rails and subways. | 2006-12-14 | |
| BUY | | Motorola | MOT-N | 20.690 | A lot of competition and the low-end market is getting lots of sales, which lower the margins. Also some inventory overhang, Transition to 3G has not been as smooth as had been hoped. With the low P/E, it’s a good place to park some money. | 2006-12-14 | |
| BUY | | Agilent Technologies | A-N | 34.060 | Re-engineered itself to focus on its test measurement and instrument business. Very broad product line in that space. Moved manufacturing offshore. Really a play on R&D rather than the economy. If you want exposure nanotechnology, optics, Intermaxtic biotechnology, etc. this company has products going into all those areas. | 2006-12-14 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Apple | AAPL-Q | 88.550 | Would be cautious about getting in at this point. Selling off his position slowly. Will continue to move on the better numbers expected via Christmas sales, but the risk is a bit of a disappointment on the I-phone. Pricey. | 2006-12-14 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | | Cognos | CSN-T | 48.620 | (A Top Pick May 6/06. Up 18.2%.) Still likes. Their transition to Cognos8 is taking time to get traction, but it is happening. | 2006-12-14 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Celestica Inc | CLS-T | 9.330 | Has been a disappointment. Change of CEO’s was a danger signal. | 2006-12-14 | |
| Comment | | Microsoft | MSFT-Q | 30.070 | Unique in US corporations in that it only uses about 18% of its cash flow to maintain its business. Have so much cash that they will be paying out massive dividends. The opportunity with them comes from the upgrade of their desktop operations and operating systems. | 2006-12-14 | |
| HOLD | | Research In Motion | RIM-T | 155.400 | Have done a great job fighting off competition over the last year. Has some good legs here. New products coming out which look attractive. | 2006-12-14 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Palm Inc. | PALM-Q | 14.210 | Becoming more of a value stock. Being targeted directly by products from Motorola (MOT-N). Anyone using Windows Mobile platform Is going into Palm’s trio space. His strategy is to short this stock and go long Rim (RIM-T). | 2006-12-14 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Yahoo! | YHOO-Q | 26.870 | Fought every search competitor in the early stages of the internet and then sat on its laurels and watched Google (GOOG-Q) and take away tons of market share. Also watched others take away the social network opportunities. Maintaining revenue levels, but losing share. | 2006-12-14 | |
| WATCH | | Descartes | DSG-T | 4.350 | Very small and very illiquid. New CEO has done a great job of trimming away a lot of expenses and focusing on the core business. Provides a fairly unique network service. By layering on new applications, they are starting to move up the value chain. Legislation is going their way now that customs requires clearance before going through. Could show some nice traction going forward. | 2006-12-14 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | | Silicon Laboratories Inc | SLAB-Q | 31.990 | (A Top Pick Jan 26/05. Down 36%.) Face the opportunity for single chip cell phone technology to penetrate the low end of the market. Went up 30% and he sold. Looking at it again. | 2006-11-09 | |
| TOP PICK | | Corning Inc | GLW-N | 20.130 | Now the dominant player of flat panel LCD TV’s. Commoditization of the LCD market. Price decreases in TVs gives concerns on what Christmas sales will be. Also a leader in diesel filters. Technology is so much better than anyone else’s. | 2006-11-09 | |
| TOP PICK | | BrocadeCommunication Sys Inc | BRCD-Q | 7.630 | In almost every area that’s hot in terms of technology, so you are riding the edge of new technology by owning this one. One of the best technology companies. | 2006-11-09 | |
| TOP PICK | | Shire PLC | SHPGY-Q | 56.140 | (A Top Pick Jan 26/05. Up 11%.) Pharma company that’s moving into the biotech space. Have a lot of new products. Does $1.9 billion in revenues and can add another $1.4 billion incremental revenues in the next 4-5 years if the products are approved. | 2006-11-09 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | | Zenon Environmental | ZEN-T | 23.970 | (A Top Pick Jan 26/05. Up 34%.) Acquired by GE. | 2006-11-09 | |
| SELL | | PMC Sierra Inc | PMCS-Q | 7.380 | More on the Sell side in the short term given that their communications is weak and their optical business is weak. | 2006-11-09 | |
| BUY | | March Networks Corp | MN-T | 24.000 | Good company. Best positioned for mobile and digital TV surveillance. | 2006-11-09 | |
| DON'T BUY | | JDS Uniphase | JDU-T | 18.390 | More attractive since they turned profitable. Would like to see the growth rate really improve before buying. | 2006-11-09 | |
| BUY | | Research In Motion | RIM-T | 140.810 | Had a strong rebound from their problems with NTP. Competition has not been able to get traction. Expects the next 3 quarters should be pretty healthy. | 2006-11-09 | |
| HOLD | | Nokia | NOK-N | 19.500 | Has basically been at the low end of the handset business. Cheap. New products will be coming out which could give it a boost. | 2006-11-09 | |
| BUY | | Cisco | CSCO-Q | 26.710 | Dominate position in the enterprise and increasingly growing its presence in the carrier space. As internet protocol traffic becomes more and more the dominant carrier of data, it is the best positioned. | 2006-11-09 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Micron Technology | MU-N | 13.570 | The amount of capacity that’s coming in to produce products in their area is pretty substantial. Everyone’s producing Nan-Flash and the supply is driving prices down. | 2006-11-09 | |
| HOLD | | Celestica Inc | CLS-T | 10.930 | Problem is that it can’t seem to earn enough money on its billion of dollars of sales. Needs more margins in Mexico and eastern Europe. Can earn a lot if it gets its act together. | 2006-11-09 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Microsoft | MSFT-Q | 29.260 | With Vista rolling out, it’s the first opportunity there has been to show some traction. Only about 1% of PC’s will use Vista. | 2006-11-09 | |
| BUY | | Cognos | CSN-T | 43.550 | Stock is nicely positioned. Have gone through a process that allows them to integrate new features much faster than their competition. This will allow them to o after large scalable opportunities on business intelligent applications. | 2006-11-09 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Yahoo! | YHOO-Q | 27.450 | Makes most of its money selling advertising. Page use is growing pretty high at 24% per year. Facing a challenge of Google’s (GOOG-Q) penetration of the business. Prefers Google. | 2006-11-09 | |
| BUY | | Navteq Corp. | NVT-N | 31.570 | In the GPS space. Feels that GPS is playing an increasing role and this is a key player. | 2006-11-09 | |
| VAGUE | | March Networks Corp | MN-T | 23.060 | A very good Canadian growth stock. Have a strong position in digital surveillance equipment. There will be a lot of competition in this space. Can be volatile. Valuation got ahead of itself. | 2006-05-09 | |
| BUY | | Google | GOOG-Q | 408.800 | Has a fairly strong momentum. It is the leader now in sponsored advertising. The issue is, can this company maintain its growth over several years. | 2006-05-09 | |
| BUY | | Research In Motion | RIM-T | 84.000 | Facing imminent competition from Nokia, Motorola and Microsoft but models will probably be different. Feels the company will continue to grow. Will be volatile. At the low end of its trading range. | 2006-05-09 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Microsoft | MSFT-Q | 23.620 | Has a hard time maintaining growth rates that are acceptable. Going into a product cycle right now which could give them a bit of a bump in the growth rate. | 2006-05-09 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | | eBay Inc | EBAY-Q | 31.860 | (A Top Pick Nov 16/05. Down 26 %.) Have been some concerns, but the stock is overpriced where those concerns are overblown. | 2006-05-09 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | | ATS Automation | ATA-T | 17.480 | (A Top Pick Nov 16/05. Up 20%.) Valuations for solar technology companies have gone up. | 2006-05-09 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | | Workbrain Corp | WB-T | 14.200 | (A Top Pick Nov 16/05. Up 8%.) Continues to execute and is doing well. | 2006-05-09 | |
| HOLD | | Celestica Inc | CLS-T | 12.160 | Good balance sheet. The business is going through a real tough transition. A lot of their manufacturing was in high cost areas so they are moving it all over to Asia and Mexico. Restructuring will probably be finished by the 3rd quarter. Demand has been flat. Sound optimistic about the next quarter. | 2006-05-09 | |
| BUY on WEAKNESS | | Dell Computers | DELL-Q | 24.570 | Cheap at 14 X next year's earnings. Near-term risk is their decision to cut prices to gain market share. Could lead to a price war and they may not get the market share they were hoping for. In the long run, it is a great business model. Would buy a few $’s lower from here. | 2006-05-09 | |
| BUY | | ATI Technologies | ATY-T | 18.550 | Well-positioned in the graphic space. Has done a really good job of moving into the consumer space. | 2006-05-09 | |
| BUY | | Com Dev International Ltd. | CDV-T | 4.130 | He feels they will benefit from an upswing in satellite business. Have a fairly good market share. Won a fair number of new contracts recently. Could move a little bit higher. | 2006-05-09 | |
| WEAK BUY | | Corvis Corp | BWNG-Q | 13.280 | Use fibre for voice and data and they are in an interesting situation. Clean balance sheet. Ultimately, they have to really build volumes or merge with somebody to get the economies. Margins are low. | 2006-05-09 | |
| WAIT | | Oracle | ORCL-Q | 14.110 | Their strong business is database business which is not big growth. It grows when they have a new product. Have made acquisitions to strengthen their application side, but not sure this will work. | 2006-05-09 | |
| BUY | | Broadcom Corp. | BRCM-Q | 40.410 | One of the leaders. One of the few companies that combines digital and analog in a CMOS platform. Have a record of staying ahead in the marketplace and being one of the most feared companies in their space. | 2006-05-09 | |
| DON'T BUY | | JDS Uniphase | JDU-T | 3.750 | Feels their business is turning. The optical business in the communications side is showing some acceleration. Expensive with a valuation of 5 X sales and 98 X next year's earnings. Margins are paper thin. | 2006-05-09 | |
| TOP PICK | | Cognos | CSN-T | 40.890 | Company is going through a transition to Cognos8 which is a really good product. Traction is there for the next couple of quarters. Great balance sheet and lots of cash. | 2006-05-09 | |
| TOP PICK | | Qualcom | QCOM-Q | 52.740 | There is some risk in the stock due to court cases on high royalty fees in Europe. 3G is growing much faster than previous models. Have an incredible patent platform. Also have some really neat new products in their processing technology. | 2006-05-09 | |
| BUY | | ATI Technologies | ATY-T | 19.930 | Is coming back from losing market share with Nvidia (NVDA-Q). Very well-positioned. Going into the first-half of the year with some very good momentum. Brightening its platform beyond desktops and laptops. | 2006-01-26 | |
| TOP PICK | | Zenon Environmental | ZEN-T | 17.900 | Disappointed several quarters, mostly because of their cost structure. Has a rising backlog and their orders are good. Opened a lot of new plants that have been poorly operated. Management deals they had turned the corner. Wait for another quarter. | 2006-01-26 | |
| HOLD | | Celestica Inc | CLS-T | 11.800 | There is another restructuring coming. Their forecast is not too rosy. A lousy business. Moving into other areas which could turn out better. | 2006-01-26 | |
| BUY | | Intel | INTC-Q | 21.490 | Very much like all the big cap tech stocks. Pretty cheap judging by its historical valuation. Losing market share to AND (?). It's a BUY in the first-half of this year. In the end it will capitalise on its manufacturing strength. | 2006-01-26 | |
| TOP PICK | | Shire PLC | SHPGY-Q | 47.630 | A UK company that does such nervous system pharmaceutical products. The big product is for hyperactive disorder. Adderall, a big seller, does not become generic for three years. Multiple in the high teens. Also has five new products coming out. | 2006-01-26 | |
| BUY on WEAKNESS | | SalesForce.com Inc. | CRM-N | 40.180 | Another big trend in terms of growth is software on demand and open source software. This company is on the leading edge of software on demand. There are now opening their platform to other types of software on an “as needed” basis. Pretty expensive. | 2006-01-26 | |
| TOP PICK | | Silicon Laboratories Inc | SLAB-Q | 51.330 | (Picked when it was 30% lower.) One of the big trends is low cost mobile handsets. This company has a platform technology which can generate a lot of products. One of the few companies that can integrate analog and digital technologies on Cmos circuits. | 2006-01-26 | |
| BUY | | Applied Materials | AMAT-Q | 19.730 | Part of the semiconductor equipment industry. Business is primarily driven by foundries for making integrated circuits however, the industry is changing. Consumer electronics now demand more semiconductors than the cyclical capital spending side. More stability. Also building their server side. | 2006-01-26 | |
| BUY | | Apple | AAPL-Q | 72.330 | After selling his holdings in the mid-$70’s the is starting to buy back once more. Changing its business format to almost an entertainment company. It dominates the MP3 players and the iPods and gives them a platform to deliver content. | 2006-01-26 | |
| BUY | | ATI Technologies | ATY-T | 19.450 | Had a rough year. Nvidia (NVDA-Q) has basically run away with the market. Back on track with their new products. Shouldn't lose any more market share and have cleared their inventory problems. This is an industry that goes through these kinds of rotation between companies. Fairly risky, volatile business. Well positioned for the next 3/4 months. | 2005-11-16 | |
| WEAK BUY | | Intel | INTC-Q | 24.870 | Along with the large technology companies has a problem in growth. When you are as big as they are it's hard to generate revenue growth.90% of their business is PC's effectively. The stock trades at 18 X earnings which is pretty nice. Has a 2% yield. Prefers companies that are smaller in size, but have the growth potential. | 2005-11-16 | |
| WATCH | | Zenon Environmental | ZEN-T | 21.200 | Canada's best example in terms of technology in water filtration treatment. Have 70% of the golbal membrane business. COsts are coming down dramatically and membrane technology is gaining market share. The trouble with Zenon is that it's missed quarters and the market is sceotical of management's ability. Needs some good quarters. | 2005-11-16 | |
| BUY | | Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. | CTSH-Q | 47.570 | Basically an outsource play on software. Indian software market has been phenominally powerful. The model is very attractive. There's a long term book opportunity for them. | 2005-11-16 | |
| BUY | | Research In Motion | RIM-T | 77.030 | No certain outcome for their legal situation at this time. The judge has indicated that he wants to get it resolved quickly. A lot of political pressure being placed. He feels there will be a settlement that RIM can handle and they will move on. Competition could be coming as well. You can have as a small portion of your portfolio. | 2005-11-16 | |
| WEAK BUY | | Nortel | NT-T | 3.590 | Has turned the corner in regards to stability in its business, but still suffering. Starting to see a little bit of sales growth. Expects cost cutting to take place resulting in higher margins over the next couple of years. The risk is their exposure to growth markets. Would be a trader within its range. | 2005-11-16 | |
| BUY | | Celestica Inc | CLS-T | 11.210 | They're a shareholder and feels they will be adding to the stock at this price. You have to look out to next year and their order rates. Its end markets are just not growing. Would like to see some new customers come in. Expect in the next year they will start to see some better order numbers. Cheap. | 2005-11-16 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | | Precision Drilling | PD-T | 54.500 | (A Top Pick Jan 20/05. Up 10%.) | 2005-11-16 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | | Cognos | CSN-T | 40.700 | (A Top Pick Jan 20/05. Down 17%.) Still likes. They missed the 1st quarter and their product introductions are really good. A little worried about the next quarter as their targets are a little ambitious. | 2005-11-16 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | | Corning Inc | GLW-N | 20.390 | (A Top Pick Jan 20/05. Up 72%.) They play the digital television market through their ability to make large pieces of glass. | 2005-11-16 | |
| Comment | | CSI Wireless | CSY-T | 1.230 | The whole group seems to be suffering because the integration of GPS and wireless isn't taking off as it has in Europe. An area that's worth looking at. Expects to see GPS and wirelss integration in a bigge way in North America. | 2005-11-16 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Open Text | OTC-T | 18.430 | Having a little rebound. His sense is that the company is showing that it is turning the corner after stumblig with their European acquisition. Still concerned about their ability to grow. Growth rate going forward is single digits, not double digits. | 2005-11-16 | |
| BUY | | March Networks Corp | MN-T | 22.570 | Their product isa wireless video digital recorders for buses, trains, etc. security. Good product. This is the largest portion of their sales and this is where there will be more competition and more costs. They have to layer on services above this to lock in their customers. Stock has run up a lot. | 2005-11-16 | |
| DON'T BUY | | JDS Uniphase | JDU-T | 2.670 | Had gone through a death spiral since the end of the 90's when they were making so much money off the optical components for Nortel (NT-T) and others. Had tons of cash and used some of it to make an acquisition which is working out well. There is now some improvement in demand for optical components. Not earning money yet. Too expensive. | 2005-11-16 | |
| WEAK BUY | | Microsoft | MSFT-Q | 27.740 | Like some of the big technology companies, recovering from a growth dilemma. Well positioned, generating a lot of cash, great margins but no growth. You need to see some new products. There are some new products coming out that may help for a short term. If their Xbox does not turn out as well as expected, it could be a negative. | 2005-11-16 | |
| HOLD | | Tundra Semiconductor | TUN-T | 14.750 | In the business of connecting chips on the motherboard of computers and servers. They stumbled and competition moved ahead. In the meantime Rapid IO is coming up and they are well positioned in that. | 2005-11-16 | |
| TOP PICK | | eBay Inc | EBAY-Q | 42.540 | Continues to execute on its business model of on-line auctions and now fixed price sales. Likes the price. Have made some changes to accelerate the listings. The acquisition of Skype could be a real winner. | 2005-11-16 | |
| TOP PICK | | ATS Automation | ATA-T | 14.650 | Buying it for their alternate energy strategy with solar power. Have proven up the technology and getting some reasonable yields. Now have to put it in production. Some risk. | 2005-11-16 | |
| TOP PICK | | Workbrain Corp | WB-T | 13.000 | A small player and doesn't have a lot of US coverage. Its client list includes Fortune 500 companies. Basically have very little competition in large corporations. Growing at 30/40% per year. Stock looks cheap. | 2005-11-16 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Wipro Ltd. | WIT-N | 21.000 | Outsourcer of software and R&D out of India. Has grown dramatically and should continue to grow for some time. Well run. Really good technology. Probably pretty expensive. | 2005-05-27 | |
| BUY | | Research In Motion | RIM-T | 100.890 | Has faced some interesting challenges over the last 3 months. Likes the RIM model and thinks that RIM will be around for quite awhile. Hardware is a big factor in their profitability right now. Inventories are getting low, so will probably have a rebound in the 2nd half. | 2005-05-27 | |
| TOP PICK | | Workbrain Corp | WB-T | 15.000 | Software focused on very large corporations for managing employees for time and attendance. Can handle 100's of thousands of employes. Nearest competitor can only deal with 5,000 employees. Have a great backlog, so revenues are fairly predictable. | 2005-05-27 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Microsoft | MSFT-Q | 26.070 | Good company, but not a growth company. In the long term, when they take advantage with their relationship with SAP (SAP-N) they can move further into the enterprise. There are faster growing situations that can be invested in. | 2005-05-27 | |
| HOLD | | ATI Technologies | ATY-T | 19.050 | Market is very concerned about this next quarter as they feel that there is inventory building, Nvidia (NVDA-Q) is being reborn, etc. Company is doing very well on the consumers side. As they introduce new products over the next few months, they'll have a better 2nd half. Cheap. | 2005-05-27 | |
| TOP PICK | | Celestica Inc | CLS-T | 15.750 | Dropped a lot and at this price, it is pretty well washed out. Continued to retreat despite executing on its plan reasonably well. The problem is that some of its end customers, such as Sun Microsystems (SUNW-Q) and IBM (IBM-N) have reported weak sales. A lot of their business model deals with flow through of hardware. 55% of their business is now done out of Asia. | 2005-05-27 | |
| BUY | | Cisco | CSCO-Q | 19.790 | Well positioned. Have done a very good job of surviving the downturn. Generating tons of cash. Penetrating new markets such as wireless and storage. | 2005-05-27 | |
| TOP PICK | | Bausch & Lomb Inc. | BOL-N | 76.300 | Has gone through a transition. Was suffering a few years ago when it lost its momentum, R&D lagged. Can see some growth opportunity in their new lens. New president has shaken down the company, cut costs and re-invigorated their R&D. Has exceeded expectations for 13 quarters. | 2005-05-27 | |
| BUY | | Oracle | ORCL-Q | 12.850 | Good company. There are a lot of good things that could be brought forward over the next little while. Very strong in the database side and are gaining market share against IBM (IBM-N) using the Linux platform. The growth in storage is at the low end. Positioned very well. | 2005-05-27 | |
| DON'T BUY | | JDS Uniphase | JDU-T | 3.210 | Opportunity for fibre optics is the last mile, i.e. into the homes. Because Telco's are faced with cable getting into telephone services, they want to get into video service. Verizon is leading the charge. JDS is still a leader in this space. 50% of its revenues is from communications which seems to be turning around. Valuation is extremely high. | 2005-01-20 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Lucent Technologies | LU-N | 3.280 | Like Nortel, it faces slow growth in the telecom industry. Faced with declining business in wire-line. People are moving to wireless and IP networks, voice over IP for example. Doing well in wireless but because of wireline, revenue growth is very slow. Trades at 2 X revenues which is pretty high historically. | 2005-01-20 | |
| BUY | | Celestica Inc | CLS-T | 15.900 | The tail on the end of the dog. If the industry is suffering, Celestica will suffer more. Low margin business. Going through a real struggle to get its margins back into line. Good level to buy at. | 2005-01-20 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Nokia | NOK-N | 14.100 | Cell phone industry is maturing which you can see through the market share swings between the different manufacturers. Pretty aggressive in addressing their product line problems from last year. Have been able to gain market share in China. Inventories are becoming really flush, so will probably see growth slow down. | 2005-01-20 | |
| DON'T BUY | | Zoran Corp | ZRAN-Q | 10.010 | A supplier of integrated circuits for digital television. Has a narrow focus in the space and will eventually become a target for the platform companies. Vulnerable until they can expand their product line. | 2005-01-20 | |
| BUY | | Dorel Industries (A) | DII.A-T | 43.000 | Taking advantage of the Chinese model. Sources all its products in China. This is one way of investing in China without actually going into a Chinese company. | 2005-01-20 | |
| BUY | | Inco | N-T | 40.530 | The world needs commodities as Asia grows and Inco is pretty well positioned in the industry. Balance sheet is healthy, although they've got some big capital spending projects coming. The issue they are facing is that China has slowed its economy by pulling in credit which will probably cause some near term weakness. | 2005-01-20 | |
| HOLD | | EMC Corp | EMC-N | 13.160 | Going through a transition moving away from making large hardware platforms in storage to becoming more of a software company. Has done a good job of acquisitions for this. They still have underlying competition in storage which can result in loss of market share occasionally. Good company. | 2005-01-20 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | | Fairmont Hotels & Resorts | FHR-T | 39.830 | (A Top Pick July 13/04. Up 13%.) Still likes. Fundamentals are gradually improving. Hotel occupancy rates across North America are improving. Transitioning from owning/operating to just operating. | 2005-01-20 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | | Texas Instruments | TXN-N | 21.380 | (A Top Pick July 13/04. Down 2%.) Still likes. Still suffering from inventories in the semi-conductor supply chain. Well positioned in some of their products. Likes their DLP technology in television and they are the only supplier of DLP chips. | 2005-01-20 | |
| PAST TOP PICK | | ATS Automation | ATA-T | 12.200 | (A Top Pick July 13/04. No change.) Cdn$ has been a burden for a lot of Canadian manufacturers. Has recently been picking up and looks like it's building some momentum. Still a BUY. | 2005-01-20 | |
| BUY | | Sierra Wireless | SW-T | 18.600 | Stock was hit because of the loss of the Trio contract. Their new phone hasn't really taken off yet. Has a big position in the CMA area and is moving into GSM, so they haved a great opportunity ahead of them if they can get the same kind of market share. Getting competition in their existing market. Good level to look at. | 2005-01-20 | |
| BUY on WEAKNESS | | Apple | AAPL-Q | 70.460 | Apple has really transformed itself. The multiple is pretty high, so wait for a dip before buying. It has momentum and the market loves momentum. | 2005-01-20 | |
| BUY | | GSI Lumonics | GSI-T | 11.620 | Focused on laser technology. The driver of the stock seems to be the semi-conductor industry. If this industry has a glut, then orders for GSI disappears. The last 2 years has seen a nice run on orders, but the last quarter they dropped sharply. In the near term, revenues are about to decline. Company is profitable though. | 2005-01-20 | |
