It was another weak day in the markets. A few of our stock picks did manage gains. Toll Brothers the U.S. house builder was up 1.8% and is up a total of 33% this year to date. It does look quite expensive because earnings have certainly not recovered. So far it has been a good way to bet on the U.S. housing recovery. It would be a more speculative pick at this point.
Boston Pizza was up 1.6% and has recovered from its unjustified swoon of last week.
Canadian Tire was down another 1.1%. It’s trading at 1.24 times book value and its assets include some land and buildings that are surely worth far more than book. It is trading at 11.5 times earnings and has been exhibiting reasonable growth. I believe it is a buying opportunity with a good risk / reward profile.
A couple of our stock picks that have declined somewhat and that I think are attractive include Visa and Canadian Western Bank.