Posted at 7:00 a.m.
Xebec lost at least four buy recommendations at the end of the week in the wake of the publication of the beginning of the fiscal year results of the Montreal supplier of technologies intended for the production of renewable gases.
Analysts from National Bank Financial, Raymond James, Paradigm Capital and BMO have all withdrawn their buy suggestions on the stock.
“The main annoyance is that Xebec has been showing poor profitability for several quarters now,” says The Press Adam Gill at Paradigm.
The squeeze on margins is being noticed by analysts as David Quezada at Raymond James points out that inflation and supply chain issues are having a bigger effect than expected.
They are now only 2 analysts out of 13 to offer to buy the stock.
Although Quebecor a legitimate contender to acquire Shaw’s wireless business that Rogers is willing to sell to get its proposed merger with Shaw approved, analyst Aravinda Galappatthige of Canaccord believes the market is overestimating the odds of seeing Quebecor acquire Freedom Mobile.
According to him, there is a significant gap between Quebecor’s requirements on several aspects – particularly regarding network sharing – and what is acceptable to Rogers. He adds that if Quebecor were to reach an agreement with Rogers, the details of the agreement are likely to be rather favorable to Quebecor.
At CIBC, analyst Stephanie Price points out that Quebecor has the means to acquire Freedom, but she would not be surprised to see a financial partner participate in the transaction in support of Quebecor.
Bill Gates’ investment in the Canadian National continues to deflate. After selling $300 million worth of CN stock at the end of April, his private holding company Cascade Investment and the foundation of which Bill Gates is a co-trustee with his ex-wife Melinda sold a total of about $640 million. million dollars worth of shares in the Montreal rail carrier during the first week of May. Cascade sold 3.6 million CN shares from May 2 to 6, while the charity sold 676,660 during the same period. Bill Gates remains CN’s largest shareholder.
Difficult to explain the sudden jump of 31% recorded Friday by the action of Lightspeed. This jump could be linked to the interesting results published by Toast and the positive sentiment towards tech stocks in general on Friday. Some investors may have wanted to position themselves in anticipation of the year-end results that the Montreal company will present this week.
TD is now offering to buy the stock ofInnergex. Analyst Sean Steuart has suggested buying the title of the Quebec producer of renewable energy since Wednesday. Following the stock’s decline of nearly 20% in the last month, he believes that the current stock price has returned to an attractive level.
Dialogue lost the TD recommendation this week. Analyst David Kwan on Tuesday withdrew his buy suggestion on the action of the Montreal telemedicine company after learning of the results of the beginning of the year. The consensus of analysts surrounding performance measures seems to him too optimistic, which constitutes a risk in the current context. He is also worried about the integration risks linked to the recent acquisition of Tictrac and sees few elements on the horizon that could boost the stock in the short term.
A senior leader of Dorel bought a block of 5,000 shares of the Montreal company specializing in home furnishings and children’s items earlier this week. Jeffrey Segel completed his transaction on Monday at a unit price of $6.75.
The chairman of the board of directors of Gildan just bought a little over $115,000 worth of shares in the Montreal manufacturer of t-shirts and socks. Donald Berg bought a block of 3,000 shares on Monday to double the number of Gildan shares he holds in his portfolio to 6,000.
National Bank Financial on Monday withdrew its buy recommendation on the stock of Quebecor. Adam Shine believes that the opportunity to acquire Freedom Mobile – Shaw’s wireless services subsidiary – has suddenly materialized with the Competition Bureau’s decision to oppose the proposed purchase of Shaw by Rogers.
“Quebecor will negotiate with a motivated seller as management wishes to generate growth outside Quebec. We will see if an offer is submitted. The analyst maintains that he has always had confidence in Quebecor, but that the performance recently generated by cable activities has not been optimal, and that the risks associated with an acquisition of Freedom and a breakthrough in the West could temper the upside potential until uncertainty dissipates.
The Quebec titles of Waterfalls, Quebecor, Transcontinental, Lightspeed, Nuvei, TFI, Logistec, Power Corporation, iA Financial Group, Xebec, Gildan, Cogeco, GDI, 5N More, Lion, Dorel, Savaria, Coveo, Hardware store Richelieu, Lassonde, Bausch Health, Neptune and Hexo all hit 52-week lows in Toronto this week.