A Canadian advisor shares his three top stock tips
Grant White, an Investment Advisor at National Bank Financial, shares his three top investment picks.
Gilead Sciences – “Gilead is an interesting story having been beaten up over the last couple of years for a variety of reasons including more recently being ordered to pay Merck damages in the range of $2.45 billion,” White says. “These are the opportunities we look for in picking companies as they can create value opportunities. We like Gilead’s balance sheet and fundamentals as they continue to show good sales and new product lines on the horizon. We find the current valuation attractive and have a price target around $90.”
Marijuana producers – “This is a more general comment around marijuana companies as we have fielded quite a few questions on these companies in the last few months. In deciding whether or not to invest into a particular asset class or company, we take a bottom up approach in our evaluation meaning that we focus on the company fundamentals more than industry trend. In evaluating marijuana companies we have a really tough time investing any money there as the fundamentals and earnings don’t justify the current prices. This is not to say that we don’t believe that there will be demand for marijuana and that there will be some winners, more so we just don’t feel that we can confidently take a gamble on this space as it’s a bit of a crapshoot. Additionally, we don’t believe in over paying for assets, even good assets.
Visa – “Visa is a company that I feel is a classic example of a good company which you need to be careful not to overpay for. The company is solid with a number of positives going its way including the recent buyout of Visa Europe. Visa has a strong track record of dividend growth and also has a reasonable economic moat all of which make it attractive as a holding. At this time, however, we are happy to keep it on our watch list and wait for a nice point of entry. At the time of writing this the P/E ratio is sitting around 33.83 and so we would prefer to hold off until we can find a more attractive buy opportunity.”
National Bank Financial is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of National Bank of Canada. The National Bank of Canada is a public company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (NA: TSX). The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of National Bank Financial. The securities or sectors mentioned herein are not suitable for all types of investors. Please consult your investment advisor to verify whether the securities or sectors suit your investor’s profile as well as to obtain complete information, including the main risk factors, regarding those securities or sectors.
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