Category Archives: Stock Analysis

3 Tips To Improve Your Stock Returns

Are you new to stock investing or an experienced investor who wants to improve their stock returns? Here are a few tips that should help.

  • Know yourself well.
  • Know your stocks well.
  • Know the stock market well.

I will include examples to illustrate the points. 

Know Yourself Well as an Investor

Don’t know what stocks to invest in? Seek stocks that suit you in terms of your temperament and risk tolerance. You might need to test the waters to find your group of stocks.

One way to do so is by investing in a virtual account so that you won’t lose any real money if they turn south. If you can’t raise your enthusiasm from that, consider investing tiny amounts to get a feel of stock investing.

If you’re an aggressive investor and want high growth, consider growth stocks like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), and Tencent (TCEHY).

Conservative dividend stocks

If you’re a conservative investor, think about sticking with proven businesses. Personally, I find it’s easier to get started with dividend and value investing, which focuses on getting safe dividends and paying fair or better valuations for stocks. 

One stock I bought earlier this month that falls in this category is TC Energy (TSX:TRP)(NYSE:TRP). It is a top 15 Canadian dividend growth stock with 19 consecutive years of dividend growth. Its 10-year dividend growth rate is 7%. TRP stock is already up close to 7% from when I bought it. However, it still offers a juicy yield of almost 5.4%, which is still attractive levels.

TC Energy operates a gas and liquids pipeline and power and storage portfolio. Buying the stock at discounted valuations (such as now!) has led to double-digit long-term returns. There’s no reason that this time will be any different.

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Brookfield Property Stock: Still Attractive with 7.3% Dividend Yield

Summary

  • Brookfield Property Partners LP’s (TSX:BPY.UN)(NASDAQ:BPY) / Brookfield Property REIT’s (NASDAQ:BPR) Core Retail business is resilient, and it’s going through a phase of redevelopment to be more relevant in today’s retail environment.
  • The REIT’s Core Office business is doing well.
  • Realized gains reduced 2019 payout ratio from 95% to 84%.
  • We’re comfortable with BPY’s token raise (+0.8%) of the Q1 2020 cash distribution, as the yield is high at 7.3%.

Financial Overview for Q4 and 2019

Funds from operations (FFO) per unit (excluding opportunistic portfolio investment gains) declined 6% for 2019 against 2018. However, BPY stock did increase its cash distribution by 4.8% year over year.

Based on FFO only, the payout ratio was 95%. Thanks to the investment gains from its opportunistic portfolio, the actual payout ratio (based on “total earnings”) is lowered to 84% for 2019. Although this is higher than the 60% range in the previous years, it’s still sustainable.

Capital Recycling Program

BPY has been consistently able to sell assets in the opportunistic portfolio or mature assets at higher than their accounting values and recycle that capital into properties with expected higher returns.

In 2019, BPY sold $3.3 billion of assets at 6% higher than their accounting values and generated net proceeds of $1.8 billion that were deployed at higher returns.

Management expects to continue this capital recycling program of stabilized or mature assets to achieve net proceeds of $1.5-$2.0 billion for redeployment.

Token Dividend Increase; Dividend Yields 7.3%

Admittedly, BPY’s 2019 payout ratio of 95%, based solely on FFO, was higher than normal. Its average payout ratio (based solely on FFO) from 2014 to 2018 was 85%.

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2 Value Stocks to Buy in November

Want powerful price appreciation within the next 12 months? Both stocks of Spin Master (TSX:TOY) and Trip.com Group (NASDAQ:TCOM), which just changed its name and ticker from Ctrip.Com International (NASDAQ:CTRP) this month to reflect that it’s an international business versus one that’s focused on China, have a probable chance of doing so.

Source: Spin Master website; Fuggler (thought they’re fun as Halloween is coming up x_o)

Spin Master toys win a special place in children’s hearts

If there were only one toy company that would succeed, it’d be Spin Master. It has had the highest return on equity and profit margin when compared to larger peers Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT) and Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS). 

TOY Return on Equity (TTM) Chart

TOY Return on Equity (TTM) data by YCharts

Innovation

Spin Master is innovative. Across six research and development (R&D) centres, it has a deep internal talent pool that comes up with new ideas. It also has about 200-300 third-party inventors who complement its internal R&D. This results in thousands of ideas being filtered down to 30-50 that will be commercialized every year.

It’s no wonder that, since 2000, Spin Master has received 103 Toy of The Year (TOTY) nominations with 30 wins across a range of product categories, including 13 TOTY nominations for Innovative Toy of the Year.

Spin Master’s latest novelty, which was launched in early October, is Owleez™, the first ever interactive toy pet that kids can teach how to fly. This new toy, along with five others from Spin Master, are on Walmart’s (NYSE:WMT) Top Rated By Kids list.

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