Dolllarama is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $99.02. As I mentioned back on September 27, 2013, this is one of the best managed companies that I know of. They are shockingly profitable. Unfortunately the shares have always traded at a high multiple so it it never looks like a bargain. Certainly, I would like it better at say $85. If I were to buy this, I would buy what amounts to a quarter to half position and hope that the price fell to allow me to buy more at a lower price. Alternatively, rather than buy at $99, I could place an order at say $90 and see if it dips. But its not that likely to dip unless the whole market dips.
In the last 18 months or so Dollarama has been buying back shares quite aggressively. Some people consider that to boost earnings per share by mere financial engineering. In this case while it adds to earnings per share growth the underlying growth was already very strong. This is a growing company but it still has excess profits that it can use to buy back shares. Also it increased its use of debt. But I see nothing wrong with that as long as the debt level is still relatively modest which I consider it to be.
On Friday, the S&P 500 was up 1.2% and Toronto was up 1.1%.
That was driven by renewed quantitative easing in Japan. I can’t pretend to very much understand quantitative easing and the ultra low interest rates that result. Low interest rates make the returns on stocks look attractive in comparison to bonds.
This rapid recovery from the recent market decline has been a pleasant surprise. The U.S. market has fully recovered. My own portfolio has fully recovered and is back to a 14% return for the year. I certainly can’t pretend to accurately predict where the market will head next. On the last dip I reacted by buying. At this time I will look to see what I might sell.
I notice at least one of my rate reset pref shares went above $26 on Friday. The Brookfield A pref. My habit with these rate rest prefs has been to sell when they hit $26 so I will look to do so tomorrow. My reason to sell at $26 is that it is 4% higher than $25 and these things only pay about 4% per year and I expect they will eventually go back to $25.
Constellation Software rose 4.8% on its earnings release. Melcor was up 3.2% but I consider that to be basically “noise” as it is so thinly traded. Agrium was up another 2.0%.
Visa was up another 2.0% or $4.78 to $241.73. It had only been about three weeks since I bought it on October 9 and I was up about 15%. So I decided to sell it Friday at about $241. I had last rated it (lower) Buy at $212 on October 4 and so it seemed to make sense to sell at $241. Selling may well have been a mistake given the monopolistic characteristics. I’ll consider buying it back on a dip to say $220 or lower.