Recent Opinions with Comments from our Viewers

Have done a fantastic job of growing same-store sales in the 2%-3% range, which is pretty good in a somewhat tough economy. This is kind of a hangover from the income trust era. Pays on virtually all of its earnings to shareholders and holds nothing back. His concern is that when interest rates start to rise, it’s a dividend stock, and that could cause it to drop a little bit. Also, if they need to invest more capital, that might imply a cut to the dividend at some point, but certainly not on the horizon. Doesn’t see a lot of upside from here.

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Trading at very, very low levels and is trading at its proved value producing reserve value. This means just producing existing production, and given no value for 1) proved reserves that hasn’t been drilled and brought on 2) probable reserves or 3) any un-booked upside (acres they haven’t drilled). The current value of the stock plus debt is implying that all of that additional upside is worth nothing. This company has had a number of stumbles. Stock is very cheap but he sees no reason to buy it. There are better names.

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Second-largest auto-parts maker in Canada. Primarily the drive trains, which is the most important part of the car. Probably have the best growth prospects. $2.3 billion in their order book. Have exposure to growth in North America. Have been buying cheap factories in Europe as well as opening new factories in places like China and the emerging markets. Dividend yield 1.37%.

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Feels gold got so crowded and everybody kind of drank the Kool-Aid so what you are seeing now is just a wreck in gold land. At some point these things become way over done and way oversold. For a “trade”, you could probably get this company and a lot of gold companies now.

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(Market Call Minute.) Hasn’t been a fan of this company for a long, long time.

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Very high quality seniors housing across Canada.  Lots of them located in urban core.  First rate management.  Looking for 4-6% cash flow growth.  Improvements in the portfolio through rent increases and occupancy as well as consolidation of some of the partial ownership in some assets plus development.  Just under 5% yield, 80% payout ratio.  Expects distribution to increase within 12 months.

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Gold. Has sold all his gold equities. Strictly speaking, gold is not a financial asset. Financial assets are stocks and bonds and they pay dividends and coupons which, you reinvest over and over again. This is one thing you want to give you the greatest odds of succeeding in investing. Every day the US economy is getting stronger and every day the moment when the fed backs off from quantitative easing and starts to look towards raising short-term interest rates, gets closer and closer. The downside risk when we get into that transition is tremendous.

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(Market Call Minute) High cost Ontario/Quebec miner struggling to grow.

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A lot of the precious metals are trading extremely cheap. Lost their rich multiples as a result of a pull back in the commodities. This one is a very interesting name at these levels. Has been a lot of talk of a potential corporate action where they would either break up the company or reformulate the structure of the company to increase in value. For example putting some of their assets into a royalty structure. (He is not constructive on precious metals, so you may want to find a hedge for this trade.)

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A bit of a conglomerate within a conglomerate, holding rail, coal and ports. Likes their ability to go out and secure long-tail infrastructure projects in a number of geographies in a number of different sectors. Would like to see a pullback to $36-$37 so he could add a little bit more. Pretty much fairly valued at this price.

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Another 52 week low again.  Have a process that converts clay to alumina.  Can’t understand the process so he stays away from it.  Jury is out on whether it will work.

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Fantastic Q4.  He is happy with them.  Because we are at this level, this is the one to buy.  Thinks there is a bottom here.  2% dividend yield.

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He is Short this one. Has traded around this, only from the Short side, over the past 3 years and has been pretty successful. Company still has to prove the scale that would be necessary to take their process into full commercial production where they are delivering large amounts of refined ore. This process is going to be more difficult and more costly than they have been saying. 2 things would make him cover his Short position. 1. If there was a big positive fundamental change occurring in the company and they can prove, with big deliveries, that this process is working and economic. 2. If in general he felt the stock was really oversold.

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Energy has been underperforming because of discount to WTI.  PGF has had falling revenues with flat to negative earnings.  There are better places to be.

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(A Top Pick Jan 24/12. Down 41.92%.) Expect they will be announcing a very strong reserve update next month that will show capital efficiencies have vastly improved. You are getting a lot of light oil for free. Still likes.

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Had a really bad operations update. Wells were not coming on nearly as well as had been hoped. In the meantime, they spend a lot more money trying to get the area to work and debt to cash flow ballooned to 2X. Now the CEO is on a temporary leave. Name has become a value stock in oil/gas, which has not been the best way to make money historically, but he likes the board. Very cheap at 3.5X cash flow.

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Sold last spring because he thought REITs were pretty fully priced.  He is moving from the income play to income WITH growth now.  It is ok as a replacement for a fixed income instrument.  The dividend is safe.  But if rates start back up then this one will get squeezed.

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Canadian oil is locked in place and can’t get to world markets.  Great company on an asset basis.  He is lighter weighted than he was in energy and is not looking to put more money into the sector.  If he was he would have to be a high-yielding one.

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Doesn’t know how to analyze it at this time. If the BB 10 is going to be the huge success that the initial sales seem to indicate, it is still an un-analyzable situation. If you own and you have a gain, he would suggest you take profits.

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(Market Call Minute.) Fairly priced right now.

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He just divested the other day for no other reasons than he had a lot of profit.  He wanted to protect against a gap recently.  Thinks this is a good long term name but he thinks he can get it back cheaper: $43-$45

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He only owns the debt.  That new transaction with Primaris bothers him.  He doesn’t see great synergies.  He thinks a Boardwalk, Main Street or Brookfield Office Properties (based on valuation), but prefers apartment buildings.

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(Market Call Minute.) It would be a wonderful company if they split the thing up.

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Stock got slaughtered recently. Looks attractive. Cheapness certainly compensates you for any geopolitical risks.

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Good long-term core holding? This is probably a good one for a long-term holding. He doesn’t own any of the Brookfield group. Part of the reason for this is the lack of transparency because of the movement of all their companies.

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You have to look at natural gas stocks measured in decades.  He is building a natural gas portfolio for his clients.  We are at the bottom of the range for the 5 year picture and near it for the 10.  Thinks we are making a bottom.  Don’t look to dump.  It could double in the next 5 to 10 years.  Short term trading is a whole different thing.

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US Stocks? Should these go in a registered plan or non-registered? Is there any problem with the dividends being withheld? Generally it is better to hold US stocks in a non-registered account. You might want to look at, not just US stocks, but international stocks and emerging-market stocks.

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With a defined pension plan, should other investments be balanced 50/50 fixed income and stocks or 20/80? This depends on how old you are and how big your defined pension plan is. You probably want to get some jazz into your portfolio. If you have half of your money in a pension and half in a discretionary areas, you could probably safely put 100% of your RRSP money into stocks because your defined pension is like a giant bond portfolio.

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Individual stocks as a pension strategy compared to annuities, ETFs and mutual funds? You need to remember that all these things are building blocks and there is no single building block that is unequivocally better all the time. Securities are better in that there are no MER’s and no cost to them but you generally need to have a lot of them, probably a large 7 digit portfolio because you have to diversify by sector and geography. Mutual funds are expensive and annuities are not paying much so probably the best building blocks are the ETFs.

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Intends to buy but just not yet. Thinks they are going to be forced to cut the dividend. Well regarded management team. Yielding almost 9%. (Just announced dividend was cut from $.12-$.07 a share. This cut should make the dividend sustainable. If it trades down 10% tomorrow it may be interesting.)

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