Canadian Dollars Blog

As per the Globe and Mail this morning: Canada's largest telecommunications company, BCE posted strong profit growth of just over 70 per cent as it reported second quarter earnings on Thursday that were slightly ahead of analysts' forecasts... ...On the strength of the company's performance, Bell increased its common share dividend by 5 per cent to $1.83 a year and increased its financial guidance for the second half of the year. At yesterday's closing price of $31.60, the dividend yield on BCE is now an impressive 5.8%. Not bad for what I view as a defensive play in this volatile market. Plenty of good upside and excellent yield. What's there not to like from a dividend investor?

Let's look at some numbers shall we: Shares outstanding at end of quarter: 4,794,269 Cash: $32,307,000 or $6.738 /share Shareholder Equity: $57,379,000 or $11.968 /share The stock is currently trading at 8.20. The business is profitable. Last quarter the EPS was 0.48 diluted. Subtract the cash in the balance sheet and you have a stock that is ridiculously cheap. Surprised nobody else is noticing this one. Disclosure: I initiated a position at 6.50 and am currently still holding. This one has much more to climb. Glad to have this as a holding in my TFSA.

In the past year my non-registered investments have increased an astounding 76%. Note that this includes both dividends that are re-invested and an aggressive push in March and April to invest. At that point I was holding approximately 0% cash and fully invested in the market. I made the decision to invest for two reasons: 1. I'm invested for the long haul 2. I had a feeling that the market had bottomed. You could say that I pretty much went all in. Since hitting the bottom in April, I haven't made a huge push. I'm currently holding about 25% in cash so that I am ready to pounce when I find anything worth buying. Some of my recent purchases in December include: BOLT, RCI.B, GRVY I'm investing in stocks that are arguably deep value and stocks that pay a generous dividend. RCI.B as beat up really badly after the announcement of Globalive's WIND mobile. I will talk more about my decisions to purchase GRVY and BOLT in a future post. For now I'll just say tha...

I don't know about you but I find that there are really a lack of really good stock screener options for Canadian stocks. For American stocks, there are plenty of excellent free options like google finance and Finviz.com . Sure the Globe and mail has a filter, but I find it a bit of a pain to use. The filtering is cumbersome but it will have to do until I find a new tool to use. So, readers do you have any good free stock screeners for the Canadian market? If so, please share ideas and links with other readers!

A few more stocks came up on my screener today: Sterling Shoes Income Fund (SSI.UN) http://finance.google.ca/finance?q=ssi.un This one dropped a lot in price mainly because of the cut in dividends. Looking at their financial results, their year over year revenue has been up even though they've been scaling back their growth for 2009. The stock is basically paying out 40 cents per 1.54 (last day) closing per year of yield. Amazingly this stock is ridiculously cheap trading at a P/E of 2.83. Be warned though retail numbers have not been great as of late and I expect that there may be some further weakness in this one. Despite all that, I am looking for an entry in this stock and have put in a buy order at 1.40. Also, this stock is very thinly traded so if you are planning on buying, it will be difficult to flip this one. When the economy turns around I am confident that this one will trade at higher multiples. Generally speaking this stock is not followed by many/analysts and a...

Just read this article , and while I don't really agree with most points here, the author does raise some good and interesting ones. Microsoft wants Yahoo because it fears that Google is widening the gap between it and the two also-rans in multiple segments of the online universe. The danger is that, once combined, Microsoft will discover that the gap between Google and Yahoo is even greater than thought. A corollary hazard is this: Combining two lagging companies does not necessarily produce one dynamic competitor. What do you guys think? I think the deal will go through. Yahoo is not showing very good growth and let's face it. It'll take years for their stock to hit the low-mid 30's again. Seriously. If the deal fails, well Yahoo will go back down below 20.

With the subprime worries and realities growing out of control, it's not surprising to see a lot of stable Financial and Insurance companies taking massive hits across the board. Just last week, Citigroup wrote off a colossal 18.1 billion amid the subprime fallout. Is the worst already out there? Will things get worse? The short to medium term outlook is muddy at best. The economy and the markets have taken some massive hits in the past week with recession concerns. In fact, some analysts even claim that we are in the midst of a recession right now. Will they do better? With all this negative buzz out there, does it make sense to try to understand a stock like Citigroup? Let's look at some fundamentals. Their P/E is at an almost all time low of just 7.1. Their price to book ratio is 1.11. At these prices, I'm sure a lot of value investors are salivating. But hold on, with all the turmoil due to sub-prime difficulties, are things going to get better or do you thin...

First off, I think Apple is a great company. It's been a phenomenal turnaround story but in the short term, I think Apple will be in for a very bumpy ride. I will attempt to explain why. As you might have noticed, Apple got punished this past tuesday (-5.45%) and especially after-hours (-3.57%) despite all the product announcements from Steve Job's keynote at MacWorld. In past MacWorld events, it would generate a nice intraday pop for the Apple stock. Read on and you'll find out why this didn't happen this time around. First a little primer. A long time ago, I dated a girl for a short time who said and did some of the dumbest things you could imagine (not quite the calibre of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan, but still up there). She had this "what can you do for me right now (or in the future)" way about her which I think is pretty stupid socially, but when you're looking at stocks,strangely enough her way of thinking has great merit. Wi...

Just last week, I blogged about Intel hitting $30 . Today Bank of America downgraded Intel. The stock dropped 6%. "Bank of America analyst Sumit Dhanda said in a note to investors that his previous bullish outlook on the company was predicated on sales growth, margin improvement and an attractive share valuation. But his analysis now suggests that these factors have limited power in the near term, he said." Here's why I think the move is ridiculous. While others are out there panicking, I decided to take advantage of this buying opportunity. As I stated in my previous posting , Intel has a huge competitive advantage over AMD, who is crippled with debt. In my opinion, the downgrade is strictly a move to lower the price of the shares so that they can accumulate more. I strongly believe that technology still has legs and should continue to steam ahead in the short term. As a result of this, I picked up some more shares of Intel (INTC) this morning as this was an extrem...

GPS units used to be the territory of the rich and famous. Only available in the upper luxurious cars. A privilege for the few. This has changed very recently with the dramatic drop in prices for GPS units. The price for these portable units have been falling steadily. This past boxing day, there were some that were available in the 150-200 range. Open up a few flyers and you'll see that this isn't just a boxing day one day deal. These are slowing becoming regular every day prices. For the first time in a long time, GPS units are now affordable by ordinary everyday people. So what does this mean for Garmin (GRMN), a company that is arguably at the forefront of hardware innovation when it comes to this field? With more mainstream adoption of GPS units, does Garmin really have more room to go higher? How would a recession impact things? Surely if people become dependent on the GPS, it'll become one of those things that they can't live without like the Internet o...

Intel has been one of those stocks that has been pretty stagnant the last 5 years or so. It survived the first bubble wave (mainly because it has a real tangible product) but the stock really didn't go anywhere fast. Last year when they were restructuring, I decided to initiate a small position in the company. The main reason being was they were still clearly leading in the AMD (AMD) vs Intel (INTC) war and their products, although more expensive than AMD, were justifiable because the performance was higher. Not too long after, AMD decided to purchase ATI and the reaction was mixed on the street. Tackling so much debt in order to purchase a company seemed like a desperate move on AMD's part. In the last year, AMD has still been struggling with a high debt balance sheet and is forecasting that they will return to profitability in 2008. So why do I like Intel right now? They have a lot of freedom. With AMD crippled with massive debt, it leaves Intel the ability to leave A...

Here are a few notable links I came across while surfing this morning: The Toronto Star has an interesting article about CEO's to watch in 2008 . Apple's stock traded at 200 for the 1st time . While Apple (AAPL) may have a lot of momentum going for it, I question how long this bull can run. Their stock is basically priced for perfection. Will 2008 be a huge success like 2007? What will be the iPhone of 2008? What happens if there isn't a grandslam homerun out of the park. What if their margins aren't as good for 2008? It should be interesting to see how this one plays out. The pressure is clearly on Apple to deliver results that exceed both their guidance and the street's expectations!

Here are the main reasons why I'm bullish on Bank of Nova Scotia. Despite the subprime mortgage problems that we've been experiencing this past year, I am still very much bullish on the stock. Here is a summary of my reasons: a very unique international growth strategy focusing on central and south america and pretty much avoiding significant exposure to the USA - this is a good thing at this time Scotia is Canada's 3rd largest banks by assets and they rank 2nd by market cap in canada Scotia's total returns over the past decade have averaged 20% per anum Steady rising dividend. Boring but stable. Current dividend yield of 3.80% Stock has been unfairly beat up in the last little while I like Canada's Oligopoly. It limits competition and allows the banks here to rake up massive profits

The GlobeAndMail has an excellent article that details Audi's audacious plans to become the world's largest luxury automaker by 2015. It is currently 2007 (almost 2008). What this means is that Audi will need to transform itself into a mainstream luxury player in order for that to happen. 7 years is not a lot of time, but with the right amount of drive and motivation, it can happen. But I must warn the company. Changes like this don't happen overnight. A company's reputation (good or bad) can haunt them for many years. A genuine turnaround takes a long time to truly make. Take for instance, the Hyundai Motor company. In the 80's and 90's they were a complete joke. When they started to arguably build better cars than Toyota (TM), those feats were met with a lot of skepticism. How good will the cars be long term, people asked? These cars may be fully featured, but will it fall apart 5 years down the road, others inquired. It's not fair to compare Audi...

Apparently Britney Spear's sister, 16 year old Jamie Lynne Spears is pregnant . This is a great thing long term for Blue Nile investors. What's the connection you ask? Read on. Seriously, if you were the Spear's PR manager how could you salvage this situation? Abort the child? Unlikely, at 3 months you'd probably have to use one of those horrific abortion techniques (partial birth I think it was called) too much mess (PR mess). Put the kid up for adoption? Also another unlikely scenario because of the additional PR mess it would create (message: get pregnant, give up for adoption no biggie, have more sex, repeat ...) I know! Get married. it would essentially say "Yes we know that this situation is not favorable, but we're moving forward and doing the responsible thing." This is the lesser of the evils. Or is it? So if Jamie, 16, and her boyfriend 19 get married, it's going to send a message out to the kids that yes it's ok to get married at such ...

I read an interesting article in the Financial Post this morning in which they examined the eating trends of Americans in the last year. In a survey of 7000 people, they found that in 2007 fewer Americans were eating out at Restaurants with nearly 1/3 of the respondents claiming that the high cost of gasoline would curtail their restaurant patronage. They also went on to say that if they had to eat out, they would choose cheaper alternatives like McDonalds once a month instead of twice a month at Chili's. Let's take a comparison at two stocks: ">McDonald's 2007 Stock : ">http://finance.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1197984030000&chddm=1173&q=NYSE:MCD Ruth's Chris Steak House 2007 Stock : http://finance.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1197984086000&chddm=1173&q=NASDAQ:RUTH ...

Over at Money Sense , they've recently posted a list of the top 12 U.S. stock picks for 2008. A few of the highlights (in my opinon): CVS Caremark (CVS) (Value A, Growth A) was the only stock to garner a double-A rating this year. CVS is the No. 1 provider of prescription drugs in the U.S. and its chain of drugstores has posted outstanding numbers. Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) (Value A, Growth B), one of the world’s biggest agricultural processors, was one of our top picks last year. It continues to show strong growth and is now an even better value than it was in 2006. Bargain hunters will salivate over its low price-to-earnings ratio. Universal Health Services (UHS) (Value A, Growth B), another carryover from last year, owns a string of hospitals and health-care centres. Investors appear to be spooked by the heated debates over reform of the U.S. health-care system and what those reforms might mean to U.S. health-care providers. In response, they’ve driven down Universal’s share...

In my daily Internet surfing, I came across some excellent stock screeners for you to use. Check these out. If you like this link, I would recommend that you bookmark this page or subscribe to my feed :) Without further ado, here are the stock screeners Globe and Mail Stock Screener MSN Stock Screener High Dividend Yield U.S. Dow 30 S&P500 TSX Composite TSX 40 60 Mid Small Dividends at Risk U.S. TSX Composite Value Ratio Approach S&P500 Mid Small TSX All Graham's Approach S&P500 Mid Small TSX All The Value 60 Approach S&P500 Mid Small

Today there was news that leaked that somehow links Saputo with the Italian Mafia. As a result, the stock took a bruising and dropped a not so modest 6%. I personally believe that the story is false and that the market beat up the stock based on the allegations. I guess at this point it's a bit of a coin flip whether the allegations are true or not. Only time will tell. I will focus more on their earnings and their recent results: Saputo did will in fiscal 2007. With the recent news aside, their fiscal 2008 looks very promising. In the year ending mar 31, Saputo earned $2.28 a share with operating income rose 21.1% in the big dairy divisions. Although their revenue slipped 0.5 per cent to 4 billion, the higher efficiency cut costs by 2.2% which raised the company's profit margins. With the higher profits and excess cash flows, Saputo has continued to grow dividends year after year. I predict that they will buy back more of its shares particularly on weakness. Saputo is ...

I had dinner with a friend a week ago who also trades and I was telling him why I like MO (Altria, makers and distributors of tobacco products worldwide) amongst other stocks. I don't think I did a great job that night, but now that I've had some more time to think about it here are my reasons why I am liking MO: Stressful times. Times are getting tough, credit worries surround us. There's one thing you can count on with humans and that is they are creatures of vices. When times get tough what do most people do? Drink, gamble, smoke, have sex (in no particular order either). Which is the cheapest vice? Smoking. The Cause De'Jour is No Longer Smoking. Turn on the television and what do you see? Ads about global warming this and global warming that -- not smoking anymore. The way I gage what the cause de'jour is by watching that Anderson Cooper guy. Whatever he's reporting on in general is the hot topic of today and it ain't smoking. So with the hazards of ...