STOCKCHASE

29.890

Will Windows 8 for PC’s and Mobile push the stock higher? That is the big question. They have to be in the mobile world. He hears good things about Windows 8. We won't know until we see it on handsets and what they're going to do on the tablets.

2012-02-01

PAST TOP PICK

14.930

(A Top Pick Jan 10/11. Down 28.4%.) Stock is rebounding now and still looks interesting from the perspective of the next stage in the development of tablets.

2012-02-01

TOP PICK

Ritchie Bros Auctioneers Inc. (US)

47.390

This has the world's lowest cost resources and a lot of “brown field” potential. They are bringing that “brown field” potential forward very quickly and spending tons of money. Just doubled their dividend. The stock will flow tons of cash once they’re finished the development of this “brown field” capacity.

2012-02-01

PAST TOP PICK

RBA-N

23.590

(A Top Pick Jan 10/11. Up 0.27%.)

2012-02-01

Comment

Taiwan Semiconductor MFG.

16.690

This is a tough call. Not a growth stock but more of a good value stock trading at very deep discount to normal valuations. The problem is that growth is decelerating very quickly. Have a couple of very tough quarters coming forward. Product line-up is weak right now.

2012-02-01

BUY

TSM-N

14.190

Very few companies that can keep up in the race to reduce the dimensions of semiconductors to the point that we can see the cost of things like the iPad's continue to decline. The race is on between this company and Intel (INTC-Q) to allow companies like Qualcomm (QCOM-Q), Broadcom (BRCM-Q) and Intel to compete to provide the cheapest circuits for cell phones etc. This is one of the few companies that can compete. Still has a lot of room to move, especially over the longer term.

2012-02-01

Comment

0.020

Currencies. A lower US$ would be great for tech companies. A lot of tech companies have noticed a slowdown in the European market and a slowdown in government sales.

2012-02-01

Comment

0.020

Cloud storage companies? Different ways of playing this. There are companies that have the service model such as Google (GOOG-Q) that offers backup cloud storage. There are companies that provide the hardware. Analytics that understand this are getting more and more sophisticated and there are companies that are about to go public that are very interesting such as Splunk and Horton. All this data has to be stored on hardware, which is EMC (EMC-N), Netapp (NTAP-Q) and has to be analyzed by companies like Microstrategy (MSTR-Q), Teradata (TDC-N) and others.

2012-02-01

TOP PICK

Shire PLC

SHPGY-Q

99.640

Irish pharmaceutical company and its major franchise is Adderall for attention deficit disorder. The opportunity here is that they can move it into adults. The other part of their business is orphan drugs, drugs that are not targets for large pharmaceuticals.

2012-02-01

TOP PICK

122.420

Probably has 60%-70% of the market for delivering applications and content over the Internet. With the world moving towards cloud-based delivery of content and applications, this company is well-positioned.

2012-02-01

PAST TOP PICK

Hitachi Metals Ltd.

5486-JP

0.010

(A Top Pick Jan 10/11. Down 12.08%.)

2012-02-01

BUY

Cameco Corporation

CCO-T

21.140

Great Buy. Great ore body and can grow production by 30% over the next 3-5 years. Product price has to go up from current price of around $54 to over $75 to justify enough production to meet demand. India, Russia and China have not cut back on demand.

2011-10-12

Comment

Celestica Inc

CLS-T

8.540

Thinks of it as a manufacturer rather than a text company. Doesn’t have a lot of R & D and there are a lot of players. Margins are very thin. Well run and global but is going to be cyclical. Big risk if they lose a client. Stock should perform with technology where you are seeing a bottoming of some of the semi-conductor stocks.

2011-10-12

HOLD

17.250

Not a growth stock anymore. Been facing margin pressure from competition across all of its switches and even in the router and enterprise space, mainly Chinese. Has the ability to rejuvenate itself. Could Buy back shares.

2011-10-12

BUY

Micron Technology

MU-Q

5.200

Probably never earns its cost of capital. Highly capital intensive business. When there is an excess of DRAMs, price is driven down to marginal costs, which loses them tons of money but they have to keep reinvesting in the latest technologies. Manufacturers NAN, which is flash memory. Timing is now looking good. Could be volatile but in 6 months from now you’ll be better off owning it.

2011-10-12

HOLD

14.610

Sold his holdings when the traction of non-iPad tablets was not there. Dominated the 1st versions of those tablets. Also has been some erosion at the low end of the graphics processors. Short term, there are risks because of their discrete graphical processor units on workstations. Would probably look at buying when he sees how the next quarter or 2 evolves. Well positioned in the long-term as they are based on the Arm processor which is probably going to win a lot of share from Intel (INTC-Q).

2011-10-12

PAST TOP PICK

50.080

(A Top Pick Aug 4/10. Up 31.59%.)

2011-10-12

TOP PICK

52.040

Has been a rock in this volatile market. Great balance sheet. Good margins. Making a lot of money off licensing technology. Dominates the cell phone, base band and integrated application processor solutions. Big in the Androids and has now moved in to the iPhone 4S, so has Apple (AAPL-Q) and Blackberry (RIM-T).

2011-10-12

PAST TOP PICK

22.930

(A Top Pick Aug 4/10. Down 13.17%.)

2011-10-12

TOP PICK

Wells Fargo

WFC-N

26.950

Not high growth, but growing faster than its competition. 22% growth in earnings over the next year. Well reserved against US problem loans. Could easily move up into the mid-$30’s. US economy is a lot stronger than people think.

2011-10-12

TOP PICK

Tim Hortons

THI-T

48.270

Good track record of growing for many quarters. Have the potential to grow 12%-15% with not much volatility. Defensive.

2011-10-12

Comment

Sandvine Corp.

SVC-T

1.530

Very small cap of about $100 million. Basically has the lead position in deep packet inspection. Has about $0.77 a share in cash giving a lot of downside protection. Have been winning contracts. Could be a take out candidate.

2011-10-12

PAST TOP PICK

87.800

(A Top Pick Aug 4/10. Down 3.07%.)

2011-10-12

BUY

Riverbed Technology Inc.

RVBD-Q

21.240

This company and F5 Networks (FFIV-Q) both deal with making info off the internet come quicker. Prefers F5, which has a much more defensible position. This one is a little more cyclical as those expenditures could cut back more in a recession. He would own both companies.

2011-10-12

TOP PICK

Cameco Corporation

CCO-T

24.860

Nuclear disaster in Japan has had a negative impact on uranium stocks but China and India are not going to stop building nuclear reactors. Long term buying opportunity.

2011-06-28

SELL

15.500

Ran up dramatically when they were going to be the chip of choice on a bunch of new tablets that were coming out. When Apple (AAPL-Q) brought out iPad 2, it basically put everyone out of business.

2011-06-28

BUY

Oracle

ORCL-Q

32.340

Rejuvenated themselves quite well against their competition. Have a strategy of creating what are basically appliances, stacking an application on top of Sun Microsystems hardware on top of the database. This has improved the efficiency of delivering an integrated stack to their customers. Expecting to triple their business. Not expensive at 13X earnings.

2011-06-28

WEAK BUY

Red Hat Inc.

RHT-N

45.650

Little more risk than he is comfortable with so not in his core portfolio but in his tech portfolio. Dominant in the Linux platform. Been threatened as virtualization moves into the X86 platforms. Came out with their own virtualized solution for Linux and looks like it has some traction. Up against some big competition.

2011-06-28

DON'T BUY

27.740

In a difficult transition. Stock could move up as they roll out Blackberry operating system #7. Expecting to introduce quite a few new products in late August, which could help. They hope to have the QNX kernel out early next year and if it looks like it is on time it could continue to hold in. Longer term they have to address the issue of their competition.

2011-06-28

DON'T BUY

Royal Bank

RY-T

54.490

Cnd banks are under pressure because of rising consumer debt levels and the probability of slow loan growth. Hitting this bank a little harder than others that might have international exposure. Basically closed down their US operations and retreated back into the Canadian marketplace.

2011-06-28

BUY

Google

GOOG-Q

493.650

Dominates search in America and has developed the most popular operating system for smart phones. Has some long-term threats from things like Facebook and hasn't shown a lot of capability when dealing with the consumer. Expect they will continue to grow the multiple is not expensive.

2011-06-28

BUY

Baidu.com

BIDU-Q

136.170

Likes this one. 36% of the search engine in China and is growing quite dramatically. Search is very under penetrated in China. As broadband moves across China, search gets more and more useful and has more and more money spent on it. In the early stages of search and new services. Well positioned and fast growing.

2011-06-28

TOP PICK

Vestas Wind Systems

VWS-DC

0.010

Denmark Exchange. Wind turbines. Good balance sheet but has some debt. Currently losing money but has just renegotiated its credit line. Has a $2 billion credit line giving them 3-4 years of good credit coverage. Trades at 7X earnings. Quite risky so just nibble.

2011-06-28

TOP PICK

Finisar Corp

FNSR-Q

17.660

Optical components. The only way to handle all the video content on the internet is to upgrade networks to handle higher volumes. Optical components are on a growth track and will be for some time. Only 2 companies that can handle this, JDS Uniphase (JDSU-Q) and this company. Stock is down about 70% when Chinese cut back on orders. Trades at 10X normalized earnings and growing at 20%.

2011-06-28

SELL ON STRENGTH

Apple

AAPL-Q

342.455

Worth more than any other company in the world. Will continue to do well this year and into next year. Will see very stiff competition from the Android. At some point prices will come down but he is not worried.

2011-01-10

HOLD

20.790

On the rebound. Starting to Grow again. A reasonable hold here. He thinks this quarter wont be that disappointing again. Cloud computing will put a damper on CSCO.

2011-01-10

BUY

Finning Int

FTT-T

28.030

He owns Caterpillar and it was a better investment but FFT has a better balance sheet. Finning is lagging in reaching its 2007 highs, which Caterpillar is not. A good play, but a play also on resources, so you have to be comfortable with China. A little bit of volatility here. Excellent company and a good place to be.

2011-01-10

DON'T BUY

Hewlett-Packard Co

HPQ-N

44.860

Difficult call because of a big exposure to servers which was big growth driver and that is a going to soften. Better growth stories out there..

2011-01-10

HOLD

Intel

INTC-Q

20.690

Won’t be in mobility for a few years. Arm is a real threat. It has done really well.

2011-01-10

BUY

Juniper Networks

JNPR-N

37.610

Routing company without analysis of packets or prioritization of packets. Moving into the enterprise.

2011-01-10

BUY

28.220

It’s a cheap stock. A safe company in terms of volatility. They have lagged in so many areas.

2011-01-10

DON'T BUY

Nokia

NOK-N

10.370

Was a daring of the cell phone space. Still have the largest share of smart phones but are losing share. Have a fairly good yield, but are facing downward pressure. Balance sheet is good.

2011-01-10

TOP PICK

20.631

Gone up quite a bit in the last little while, but coming off quite a low base. Reengineered itself to be dominant in the smart phone market. Strength is graphics. Threatening to move with ARM into the server space. This company has been put back on the road track.

2011-01-10

PAST TOP PICK

Ritchie Bros Auctioneers Inc. (US)

164.730

(Top Pick Aug 4/10, Up 45.34%) believes in the long-term story. The bid brought the name into the household.

2011-01-10

TOP PICK

RBA-N

24.120

By far the largest auctioneer for construction equipment in North America. Profits are just coming back. Lots of capacity of grow.

2011-01-10

WAIT

61.770

Will face difficulties for most of this year. We have a lot of competition in tablets. You might wait until we see their new products and operating systems.

2011-01-10

PAST TOP PICK

33.680

(Top Pick Aug 4/10, Up 25.32%) A well-run company. Best balance sheet in the sector. Difficult business. Family run, consolidating in the industry.

2011-01-10

BUY

Shoppers Drug Mart Corp

SC-T

39.330

In the retail sector, this has been a growth stock. Was blind-sided by the generics issue, it will affect the rest of the industry more. They will get back on the growth track. A legal issue was announced today but now it is a buy.

2011-01-10

BUY on WEAKNESS

Teck Resources Ltd. (B)

TCK.B-T

60.500

A good company. Nervous in the near term. China is the big demand driver for coal and Teck is vulnerable to this with China cutting back. In 3 years he thinks they will see a big drop in demand.

2011-01-10

N/A

0.020

Has been fairly positive on stocks as long as we have the economy continuing to improve and interest rates staying low. Earnings will be good but not as good as last year. Very excited about tech stocks. Generally looks for large cap, but in some funds he focuses on Mid to Small cap companies.

2011-01-10

BUY

RuggedCom Inc.

RCM-T

19.200

Utility has been a pretty boring business but is now going through a massive transformation. This is one of the few ways to get leverage to this. Management are all GE guys.

2011-01-10

DON'T BUY

DragonWave Inc.

DWI-T

8.770

They committed themselves to one customer. It’s hard for them to win as much with other customers. Good technology. Not confident in the stock.

2011-01-10

PAST TOP PICK

142.690

(Top Pick Aug 4/10, Up 59.16%) Dominate player. Application delivery controllers.

2011-01-10

HOLD

Riverbed Technology Inc.

RVBD-Q

38.270

This is where the growth is. Started out just doing WAN connectivity between head office and branch office and is expanding to layer 4-7 which is where the growth is these days. Worth holding on to.

2011-01-10

TOP PICK

Hitachi Metals Ltd.

5486-JP

0.010

Make high precision parts for high end. Monopoly position. Play on electric cars, rare earth metals.

2011-01-10

BUY

23.395

Capital spending since the tech bubble has really lagged depreciation. The installed base of routers and switches will have to be refreshed. Still growing at 8-10% per year.

2010-10-26

TOP PICK

Descartes

DSG-T

6.200

It has really recovered with the new management. They are an Internet network for managing logistics. The great opportunity is to make acquisitions in order to grow.

2010-10-26

TOP PICK

Goldman Sachs

GS-N

158.290

Best of breed. Best leverage to benefit from a recovering economy. Stock was depressed by all the bad press.

2010-10-26

WEAK BUY

Hewlett-Packard Co

HPQ-N

42.950

He owns APPL. HP had a good run with their service strategy, replacing Dell. Good quality company, not threatened by any trends. Not going to be a big growth story.

2010-10-26

PAST TOP PICK

149.850

(Top Pick Aug 4/10, Up 32% total return) Thinks stock is worth a lot more than BHP is offering. It’s a matter of whether institutional investors will take the quick dollar or wait.

2010-10-26

BUY

43.935

Strong patent portfolio. Moving into new application process areas. Have done a really good job of designing chips for handsets. APPL has pushed them out of the market somewhat. QCOM will gain momentum with some of the new products coming out. It’s in great shape.

2010-10-26

Comment

56.170

It is oversold, given that no one expected them to come out with the product they did (Playbook). The issue for RIM is that they are 3’rd place in the marketplace in terms of units that are friendly to developers. RIM is going to pick up, though. The stock could run a little bit, but then the quarter might disappoint.

2010-10-26

PAST TOP PICK

31.820

(Top Pick Aug 4/10, Up 19%) They are seeing benefit from the order uptake. Global footprint. Very well managed.

2010-10-26

WAIT

Sandisk Corp

SNDK-Q

37.190

Very cyclical. We are looking at the peak of their cycle. They are in a good position for the next 2 or 3 quarters. It’s a good company. Buy it when people don’t like it.

2010-10-26

HOLD

Suncor Energy Inc

SU-T

33.350

Likes it because of assets it owns in tar sands and its ability to grow production without exploration risk. Growth is predictable. Had opportunity to rationalize retail area with acquisition of Petro Canada. You need to see oil prices rise in order to see this stock move.

2010-10-26

BUY

0.020

Uranium: You will get spikes and it will come back down. Look for low cost resources, undermined resources that can be brought to the market as uranium prices move higher.

2010-10-26

N/A

0.020

We have recovered from one of the worst economic environments of his career. He is disappointed that the economy is not stronger than it is. There are some factors that could see the US economy move ahead in the next couple of months. Next year we will have some fiscal drag as the stimulus programs end.

2010-10-26

BUY

RuggedCom Inc.

RCM-T

14.690

Beaten down from its high because some orders didn’t come through. Ruggedized networking and metering products for hydro grids, which will be in demand more and more with multiple sources of energy going into the grid. Be prepared for some shocks. He likes the management.

2010-10-26

TOP PICK

Vestas Wind Systems

VWS-DC

0.010

Sells wind towers, biggest market share. Order rates for their latest product have been tremendous. They are living on orders from the recession. Current orders are for delivery in a couple of years. Thinks we are at the low for the stock.

2010-10-26

PAST TOP PICK

102.540

(Top Pick Aug 4/10, Up 15%) Will continue to benefit from cloud computing.

2010-10-26

WAIT

Riverbed Technology Inc.

RVBD-Q

57.214

He has moved from layer 1-3 to switching technologies (layer 4-7). Those companies are the growth companies. These guys are dealing in application management, not just bit management. FFIV is the leader and his biggest holding, Riverbed is the next step up in the area of switching and routing. Lately these companies all had a big run, so move to layer 1-3 companies like CSCO-O until these pull back.

2010-10-26

Comment

Apple

AAPL-Q

262.980

2nd biggest company in the world after Exxon but there is still room for it to grow. Has trimmed his holdings slightly as he wonders about the valuation.

2010-08-04

Comment

American Tower

AMT-N (Dead)

46.940

One of the 2 leading companies in towers. Own the towers and rent space on them to operators and cell sites. Trends favour this and he can’t see any technology trends that would reduce the demand.

2010-08-04

BUY

Amazon.com

AMZN-Q

127.580

Online retailer. Have morphed from being just books to multiple categories. Threat is they can’t keep up with delivery of digital content but are handling it. A good play on the commerce side.

2010-08-04

DON'T BUY

Canadian Oil Sands

COS-T

27.250

Pays about 7%+ yield but expects this will start coming down by 2011. Based on Price to Cash Flow it is not cheap. Prefers Suncor (SU-T), which trades at a discount to its NAV and is a growing company.

2010-08-04

BUY

24.140

Been suppressed by the recession. No big turn on enterprise spending on routers/switches but when it comes there should be an increase in earnings starting at 10%-15% a year. Some interesting products in their portfolios including new Nexus switch, videoconferencing with Telepresence and a new router.

2010-08-04

DON'T BUY

Dalsa Corp

DSA-T (Dead)

10.980

In some very interesting markets, optical/optical devices in image processing but growth has slowed dramatically. Getting benefit of a recovery in the semiconductor cycle but doesn't see growth going back up to 20%-30%. Probably pay out 30% of their earnings, which suggests they don't have use of their cash.

2010-08-04

DON'T BUY

25.730

Getting attacked from different directions. Picking up revenues from Windows 7 and the new Office product. If the economy turns, the stock will do better. Better growth opportunities elsewhere.

2010-08-04

BUY

Micron Technology

MU-Q

7.640

Fairly volatile and sensitive to DRAM and the market for memory. One of the most aggressive in technology development and is better geared to be a leader than it has been in the past.

2010-08-04

TOP PICK

113.130

Can see it getting to $130-$135 in the near term. Has a dominant market position with the largest share of ground field capacity. Emerging markets need more and more potash to increase crop yields.

2010-08-04

BUY

38.430

A lot of patents in mobile/cellular market and is well positioned for the evolution to LTE, 4th generation mobile networks. Hasn’t had a strong position in iPhone or Android until recently. Starting to gain market share and momentum should pick up as we move to 4G.

2010-08-04

DON'T BUY

54.240

Has strong competition from iPhone and Android and facing a real challenge. Latest product is a “catch-up” product, not a “step ahead” product. Upside will possibly come from some advantage that they can take of their infrastructure.

2010-08-04

TOP PICK

26.710

Leading company globally for coating pipe with a 20%-25% market share. Likes the trend and growth opportunity in the development of infrastructure to deliver oil from remote locations. Great balance sheet and are starting to buy up weaker competitors.

2010-08-04

Comment

Sandvine Corp.

SVC-T

1.610

Reads contents of packets of information on networks to allocate them to certain areas. Looking at opportunities in Europe. Increasing competition in the DPI space and their market opportunities may be shrinking.

2010-08-04

BUY

RuggedCom Inc.

RCM-T

14.250

Manufacture ruggedized communications equipment such as routers/switches for electrical companies and transportation.. Great growth opportunity but Cisco (CSCO-T) is getting interested. Think they can fight them off for quite a while. Very strong management team.

2010-08-04

DON'T BUY

DragonWave Inc.

DWI-T

6.720

With data that is being developed by things like the smart phone, the amount of data that has to be driven back into the network is immense. Trend is to backhaul using new technologies this company develops and it could be the future. Clearwater is their major customer giving them 80% of the revenues and it is going down.

2010-08-04

TOP PICK

89.820

Dominates in application network controllers with 45% market share. Integral and necessary part of the evolution towards Cloud computing and consolidation of data centres. Could be a triple to a 5 bagger stock in the next 5 to 6 years.

2010-08-04

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

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

Celestica Inc

CLS-T

9.330

Has been a disappointment. Change of CEO’s was a danger signal.

2006-12-14

TOP PICK

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

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

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

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

Motorola

MSI-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

Comment

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

TOP PICK

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