Stock Picking Robot

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By using a robot to pick last year's bottom 10 out of favour stocks, John Dorfman's stock selector performed an astounding 31% return. It would be interesting to see how well his stock selector worked in the past.

In any case, for those that are interested, these are the following ones that showed up for the 2007 screen:

Here are the selections that came up:

Trilogy Energy Trust of Calgary unit prices fell by half over the past year to $10.65 at the close Friday. Trilogy said recently it expects oil and gas prices will let it pay unit holders 16 cents a month. A tax on income trust distributions is four years away.

Fording Canadian Coal Trust of Calgary mines coal for steel makers and has restructured as a royalty trust to attract more foreign investors. The unit price closed Friday at $23.90, before yesterday’s distribution of 95 cents a unit for the fourth quarter of 2006.

Precision Drilling Trust of Calgary, yet another beaten-down income trust, provides drilling and other services to oil and gas producers. The company’s latest monthly distribution of 31 cents per unit will be effective today. The closing price Friday was $26.31.

Pinetree Capital Ltd. of Toronto invests in small private and public companies in the uranium, oil and gas, biotechnology and other technology sectors. The company says it and its chair are under investigation for manipulative trading in shares of two holdings, but charges have not been laid. Shares closed Friday at $18.35.

Algoma Steel Inc. of Sault Ste. Marie returns to the robot portfolio with the lowest share price relative to historic earnings among steel makers. Shares closed Friday at $33.19.

Breakwater Resources Ltd. explores and mines base- and precious-metal properties. Shares closed Friday at $1.74, up a dollar in the past year on rising revenues and profit.

We’ll overlook nine unpopular companies in similar sectors: Northgate Minerals Corp., PrimeWest Energy Trust, Ipsco Inc., Gerdau Ameristeel Corp., Aur Resources, Hudbay Minerals Inc., Daylight Resources Trust and Shiningbank Energy Income Fund and Inmet Mining Corp.

Norbord Inc. of Toronto, the international maker of wood panel board, returns to the robot portfolio for a second chance. Price on Friday: $9.70.

Wajax Income Fund supplies parts and service for engines in a variety of industries, and is recommended by various analysts. For January, Wajax will pay 32 cents a unit to holders as of Jan 31. Price on Friday: $33.39.

Biovail Corp. of Mississauga sells branded and generic drugs and recently lost its first attempt to stop a California company from selling a generic version of a major revenue source, antidepressant Wellbutrin XL. Price on Friday: $24.06.

Canaccord Capital Inc. of Vancouver is an independent, full-service investment dealer. Most analysts now rate it as a buy, and it plans to buy back up to 5 per cent of its own shares. Price on Friday: $16.89.

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