Featured Posts

Buffett's secret to become rich In her excellent biography on Warren Buffett entitled "The Snowball", Alice Schroeder finally reveals the secret behind the success of multi-billionaire from Omaha! His...

Read More

The subtleties of the P/E ratio The price / earnings ratio is probably the most famous and most used financial ratio in the investment world. It is calculated by dividing the price of a stock by its earnings...

Read More

Fortress Paper 1. Description Fortress Paper (FTP - TSX) is a Vancouver company that specializes in the production of security papers (banknotes, passports, visas) and non-woven wallpaper...

Read More

The Thirties The high government debt load and monster budget deficit  are scaring many people right now. This is unquestionably the number one fear of investors and the argument most...

Read More

Warren Buffett and You Warren Buffett has bought a few weeks ago all the remaining shares of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad that it did not already own. As we could expect, stocks of...

Read More

Rayon is Fortress's true story (via )
Buy RIM when nobody wants it

Buy RIM when nobody wants it

Shares of Research In Motion (RIMM – NASDAQ) have undergone a sharp correction in recent days. The market was not impress by RIM Q1 results despite a 23% increase in profits and revenues. After this correction, the gap between current valuation and it’s valuation from two years ago is nothing less than phenomenal! On July 3, 2008, the stock of the BlackBerry maker was trading at $ 115 U.S. or 51 times their $ 2.26 profit from fiscal 2008 (ended March 1, 2008). On July 2, 2010, becoming a RIM shareholder costs a whopping $ 48 equivalent to 11 times the EPS of $ 4.32 from fiscal 2010.

Posted on : 08-07-2010 | By : Philippe Rancourt | In : Stock analysis

0

Read Full Article

Is Potash stock too expensive ?

Is Potash stock too expensive ?

Valuing cyclical stocks is a very different discipline from valuing non-cyclical ones. We have read recently in the financial media that Potash stock ( POT – TSX) was clearly too expensive. This Canadian company is the largest potash producer in the world (potash is a basic component of fertilizer). The stock of Potash is said to be too expensive because of its price / earnings ratio of 20, a ratio supposedly too high for a cyclical stock. I am not an expert in the field, but I doubt that the “high PE ratio = expensive stock” equation is really the right way to evaluate a producer of raw materials such as Potash.

Posted on : 04-04-2010 | By : Philippe Rancourt | In : Stock analysis

0

Read Full Article

Major strategic shift for Home Capital Group

Major strategic shift for Home Capital Group

Since its founding in 1986, Home Capital Group has concentrated in subrpime mortgages (or Alt-A in the mortgage jargon). These loans are granted to individuals not meeting banks criteria to obtain a mortgage. HCG has been able to succeed at the game through his niche expertise to assess the risk of this type of clientele, its traditional financing by issuing certificates of deposits and its conservative capital structure (high tier-1 capital ratio). In summary, HCG has long feasted from the crumbs that fell from the table of major Canadian banks.

Posted on : 21-03-2010 | By : Philippe Rancourt | In : Home Capital Group

0

Read Full Article

Riding coattails

Riding coattails

Investing in stocks is often a solitary sport where independent thinking is a valuable quality. This does not mean that our success depends to 100% of our ideas. Fortunately for us, there are brilliant investor, with an incredible talent for wealth creation and who are little known to the public (this is not an article on Warren Buffett). The beauty of stock markets is that they allow us to partner with such a specimen when we finds one. What’s easier than buying some shares and then leave it to our “new partner” with the task of working heart and soul to our enrichment!

Posted on : 07-03-2010 | By : Philippe Rancourt | In : Fortress Paper, Warren Buffett

2

Read Full Article

A castle under siege

A castle under siege

TMX Group has published disappointing 3rd quarter results. The  Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal  stock exchanges operator saw its revenues and profits fall 6% and 18% respectively. It would be easy to simply blame the recession, but it would obscure what appears to be the weakening competitive position of the company. Indeed, revenues from the Toronto Stock Exchange fell by 42% (from 26 million to 15 million) because of competition from new alternative trading system (ATS) such as Alpha, Chi-X and Pure Trading. This decrease was significantly higher than management had anticipated.

Posted on : 04-02-2010 | By : Philippe Rancourt | In : Stock analysis

0

Read Full Article

Life and death of a growth stock

Life and death of a growth stock

The publicly traded companies that post strong revenue and profits growth for many years in a row have proved to be excellent investment. Holding one of these stocks in a portfolio can make all the difference between mediocre performance and above average results. Companies such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart and Starbucks have incredibly enriched their shareholders over the years.

Posted on : 29-01-2010 | By : Philippe Rancourt | In : Unclassified

0

Read Full Article

Buffett’s secret to become rich

Buffett’s secret to become rich

In her excellent biography on Warren Buffett entitled “The Snowball”, Alice Schroeder finally reveals the secret behind the success of multi-billionaire from Omaha! His method is simple and very effective: just spend your whole life obsessing about accumulating the greatest possible amount of  money ! Never taking a vacation, having no interest outside the business world, neglecting your wife and children and having an obsessive-compulsive personality are obvious key elements of this method.

Posted on : 25-01-2010 | By : Philippe Rancourt | In : Warren Buffett

0

Read Full Article

The subtleties of the P/E ratio

The subtleties of the P/E ratio

The price / earnings ratio is probably the most famous and most used financial ratio in the investment world. It is calculated by dividing the price of a stock by its earnings per share for a twelve months period. For example, a stock trading at $ 10 and having achieved $ 0.50 in earnings per share over the last twelve months will have a price / earnings ratio of  20 (10 / 0,50 = 20). While it is fairly simple to calculate, its interpretation has many subtleties. Here are some that must be taken into account to determine if the price / earnings ratio for a stock is attractive or not …

Posted on : 19-01-2010 | By : Philippe Rancourt | In : Unclassified

0

Read Full Article

Fortress Paper

Fortress Paper

1. Description Fortress Paper (FTP - TSX) is a Vancouver company that specializes in the production of security papers (banknotes, passports, visas) and non-woven wallpaper  (the wallpaper that peels off easily). Although the company is Canadian, all of its operations are located in Europe. The production of security papers is done at the Landqart mill in Switzerland and the wallpaper production takes place at the Dresden mill in Germany. The company was created from scratch in 2006 by canadian businessman Chad Wasilenkoff when it took advantage of the rationalization of a company called Mercer International to purchase the paper mills of Landqart and Dresden.

Posted on : 18-01-2010 | By : Philippe Rancourt | In : Fortress Paper, Stock analysis

2

Read Full Article

The Thirties

The Thirties

The high government debt load and monster budget deficit  are scaring many people right now. This is unquestionably the number one fear of investors and the argument most often invoked to justify an imminent fall of the stock market. For a lot of people, it is completely illogical to have used excessive debt to fight a crisis caused by… excessive debt ! They said it would have been better to purge capitalism by allowing irresponsible companies and individuals to go bankrupt.

Posted on : 12-01-2010 | By : Philippe Rancourt | In : Unclassified

0

Read Full Article

Previous