How To Invest
In addition, Pat thinks then beginner investors should cultivate two important qualities: a healthy sense of skepticism and patience.
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Investors should approach all investments with a healthy sense of skepticism. This can help keep you out of fraudulent stocks that masquerade as high-quality stocks. It will also keep you out of legally operated, but poorly managed, companies that promise more than they can possibly deliver.
If you are a new investor, you should also realize that losing patience can cause you to sell your best choices right before a big rise. All too often, investors buy a promising stock just as it enters a period of price stagnation. Even the best-performing stocks run into these unpredictable phases from time to time. They move mainly sideways in a wide range for months or years before their next big rise begins. (Stock brokers often refer to these stocks as “dead money.”)
If you lack patience, you run a big risk of selling your best choices in the midst of one of these phases, prior to the next big move upward. If you lose patience and sell, you are particularly likely to do so in the low end of the trading range, when stock prices have weakened and confidence in the stock has waned.
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Here’s the text of the quarterly letter I recently sent to our Portfolio Management clients: “Investors can find lots of things to worry about today, in politics, economics, terrorism, military developments and so on. However, today’s biggest single worry for most investors is the downturn in the stock market. Both the Canadian and U.S. markets hit a peak early last year, and have been generally moving down ever since. As stocks fell, their prices became more volatile. Many commentators wonder if this slump signals the start of a new recession. If so, it’s natural to wonder if the next recession will be like the last one, in 2007-2009, or even worse....
Vecima Networks, $11.78, symbol VCM on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 22.4 million; Market cap: $263.0 million, www.vecima.com), designs and make technology for the broadband equipment market. Vecima first sold shares to the public in 2005 and began trading on the Toronto exchange at $7.50. The company’s technology provides a final network segment for service providers, such as cable companies, to connect their systems directly to end-users. This is commonly referred to as “the last mile.”...
BMO MSCI All Country World High Quality Index ETF, $23.57, symbol ZGQ on Toronto (Units outstanding: 1.4 million; Market cap: $33.0 million; www.etfs.bmo.com), aims to replicate the performance of the MSCI All Country World High Quality Index. Bank of Montreal launched the ETF on November 5, 2014. The underlying MSCI (Morgan Stanley Country Index) was formed in 1995. The BMO MSCI All Country World High Quality Index ETF focuses on the U.S. (68.2% of assets). Its next highest weightings are the U.K. at 8.5%, Switzerland at 6.3% and Denmark at 2.1%. The ETF’s MER is 0.52%, and it yields 1.2%. The fund mostly holds large-capitalization global companies: Apple, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Exxon Mobil Corp., Roche Holding AG, Nestle SA, Procter & Gamble, Alphabet Inc. and Home Depot....
In our January 19 Inner Circle, I said “…several ominous factors are weighing on the market right now, in addition to the U.S. presidential election. These include the outlook for interest rates; the trend in prices for oil and other commodities; the rise in terrorist activity; the Chinese economic slowdown; and the sharp rise in the U.S. dollar and corresponding drop in the Canadian dollar… “The market is likely to remain volatile, thanks to these ominous factors. But high-quality dividend-paying stocks offer higher current returns than most fixed-return investments. These stocks also provide a hedge against inflation. This combination gives investors a strong incentive to hang on to their stocks as long-term investments. It gives them an incentive to buy more stocks when prices drop, as they have recently. “All in all, now is a good time to invest in a Successful Investor-style portfolio. My view is that prices will be higher by the end of the year. By then, we’ll be able re-evaluate the market outlook, in light of who wins the presidential election this November.”...
Parkland Fuel Corp., $21.35, symbol PKI on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 94.1 million; Market cap: $2.0 billion, www.parkland.ca), operates gas stations, convenience stores and a fuel-distribution business, mostly in Western Canada and Ontario. It was called Parkland Income Fund before it converted to a dividend-paying corporation on December 31, 2010. The company owns 312 rural gas stations and convenience stores. Its brands include Fas Gas Plus, Race Trac Gas and Short Stop. Many of Parkland’s stations sell propane in addition to gasoline and diesel fuel. Parkland also operates Esso stations in Western Canada and Ontario under a licensing deal with Imperial Oil (symbol IMO on Toronto). In addition, it has an agreement to use the Chevron brand in B.C....
Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund, $18.51, symbol BPF.UN on Toronto, (Units outstanding: 20.4 million; Market cap: $379.8 million; www.bpincomefund.com) holds certain trademarks and trade names used by Boston Pizza International at its Boston Pizza restaurants in Canada (but not including the U.S. and Mexico). The trademarks are licensed to Boston Pizza International for 99 years, for which Boston Pizza International pays the fund 4% of the franchise revenues of the 372 Boston Pizza restaurants in Canada. The fund first sold units to the public at $10 each and began trading on Toronto in July 2002. The fund’s royalty income grows from rising same-store sales, and from the opening of new Boston Pizza restaurants in Canada. Over the last year, Boston Pizza opened 12 new restaurants in Canada and closed six, raising its total to 372 from 366....
Qualcomm Inc., $52.03, symbol QCOM on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 1.5 billion; Market cap: $78.1 billion; www.qualcomm.com) makes computer chips that are mainly used in cellphones and other mobile devices. The company owns the dominant wireless network standard in the U.S.—CDMA, or code division multiple access. But Qualcomm also makes chips that are widely used outside of North America. That technology is based on the GSM (global system for mobile communications) standard. Qualcomm is a “fabless” company; that is, it doesn’t own any chip fabrication factories. Instead, it designs its chips and relies on other companies to make them. That business model cuts the company’s capital spending needs, but adds to its risk, particularly if the suppliers deliver chips late or with defects....
Atwood Oceanics, $9.41, symbol ATW on New York (Shares outstanding: 64.8 million; Market cap: $631.5 million; www.atwd.com), currently has 11 deepwater oil-drilling rigs, and is constructing two ultra-deepwater rigs. Atwood operates mostly in foreign waters, with rigs working off the coast of West Africa, Australia and elsewhere. Atwood’s revenue has grown steadily over the last five years, along with oil and gas prices. It has climbed from $645.1 million in fiscal 2011 (years ended September 30) to $1.4 billion in 2015. Profits rose as well, from $271.7 million, or $4.20 a share, to $432.6 million, or $6.70 a share. In its fiscal 2016 first quarter ended December 31, 2015, Atwood’s revenue and earnings fell. Revenue declined 12.5%, to $307.8 million from $351.7 million a year earlier. The company earned $39.1 million, or $0.60 a share, in the latest quarter. That’s down 15.4% from $46.2 million, or $0.72 a share....
Every investor has to live with all-too-human tendencies that influence our decision-making. You have these tendencies for a reason, but sometimes that reason works against your investment goals. To succeed as an investor, you need to recognize these tendencies, and take control of them. Reaction to danger. This is one of the oldest human tendencies. It goes back to the millennia that our ancestors spent on the African savannah, hiding from saber-toothed tigers and other megafauna, not to mention marauding neighbours. To stay alive, we learned to keep a constant eye out for danger, react quickly, and run fast at the first sign of trouble. False alarms were frequent, of course. But the odds favoured running at any hint of risk. If we ran, we stayed alive, and at times we happened upon a new berry patch, a bird’s nest full of eggs, or a small rodent for our next meal....
High Liner Foods Inc., $15.27, symbol HLF on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 30.9 million; Market cap: $483.8 million, www.highliner.com), processes and markets frozen seafood. The company was called National Sea Products before it changed its name in 1998. High Liner sells its products in grocery stores throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico under the High Liner, Royal Sea, Fisher Boy, Mirabel and Sea Cuisine labels. It also sells food to restaurants and institutions under its High Liner, FPI and Icelandic Seafood brands. In addition, High Liner is a major supplier of private-label seafood to North American distributors and grocery stores. In the past few years, High Liner has steadily expanded its operations with acquisitions....