Posted at 6:00 a.m.
March marked the stock market rebound for Nuvei, the Montreal provider of electronic payment solutions.
The action of Nuvei appreciated by 37% in March. The other big Quebec winners of the month on the Toronto Stock Exchange are Xebec (+26%) and Guru (+ 20%).
On the losing side, the title of Neptune Wellness Solutions lost 43% of its value during the month. mdf trade (-18%), Dorel (-16%), Transcontinental (-15%) and Theratechnologies (-12%) also went through a difficult month on the stock market.
The Rossy family foundation sells approximately $80 million in shares of Dollarama, the equivalent of approximately 20% of the shares held by the foundation in the Montreal retailer. The announcement of this operation on Friday comes as the stock has just reached its highest level in 52 weeks and after the publication, in the middle of the week, of end-of-year results which were well received by the market. Dollarama was founded in 1992 by Larry Rossy, father of current CEO Neil Rossy.
The mid-week purchase of a block of shares of Therapeutic Knight worth more than $100,000 by the CEO of the Montreal pharmaceutical company, Samira Sakhia, is seen as a mark of trust by David Novak at Raymond James. In a note released Thursday, the analyst points out that the current price acts as a floor for the stock and that the company is also buying back a lot of shares for cancellation. “Knight is one of the best defensive stocks to own in the Canadian healthcare sector,” he says.
Opinions differ about Xebec. If the Montreal supplier of technological solutions for the production of renewable gases won two supports in the middle of the week the day after the day of presentation for investors organized by the management, an analyst also withdrew his recommendation to buy.
David Quezada, at Raymond James, now suggests buying the stock. He justifies his decision by the large-scale opportunities available to Xebec in the field of renewable natural gas, hydrogen and carbon capture.
His colleague Rupert Merer, of National Bank Financial, imitates him and also recommends the purchase from now on. Now is a good time to buy, he said, after the stock’s fall and now that the outlook is improving for both margins and revenue.
For his part, Aaron MacNeil, of TD, is no longer offering to buy. He calls the revenue forecast for 2024 “optimistic” and highlights two potential risks to consider: in terms of demand growth and in terms of financing growth initiatives. Xebec is already “highly” indebted and its financial flexibility is “limited”, according to him.
The chairman of the board of directors of the NC has just purchased $265,000 worth of shares in the Montreal rail carrier. Robert Pace purchased on March 25 a block of 1561 shares at a unit price of $169.35.
While the title of Transcontinental been roughed up throughout March, the chief financial officer of the Montreal company specializing in flexible packaging and printing has just bought shares for the second time in two weeks. Donald LeCavalier bought a block of 2,800 shares on March 25. He had also previously bought a block of 2,800 shares on March 11.
The Quebec titles ofFood Couche-Tardof Dollaramaof Senvest Capitalof Champion and NC have all reached a 52-week high on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the past few days. In contrast, the Quebec titles of CGI, Transcontinental, Stella Jones and Neptune hit a 52-week low.