Tax loss selling candidates, 2019

Below are 29 companies that are trading lower than 40% year to date on the TSX, that have a market cap of above $75 million. I’ve also restricted the share price to greater than 50 cents.

TSX tax loss candidates

August 30, 2019 closing prices
Last trade > $0.50
Market Cap > $75 million
YTD change -40% or worse
ItemSymbolNameSectorLastYTD %ChgMktCap ($M)
1TH-TTheratechnologiesBio4.98-40.14394
2AVCN-TAvicanna IncCannibis3.66-41.2588
3IDG-TIndigo Books & Music IncRetail6.6-41.49180
4BIR-TBirchcliff Energy LtdEnergy1.77-41.78503
5SOY-TSunopta IncFood3.07-41.86275
6SOX-TStuart Olson IncEngineering2.89-41.9782
7ATH-TAthabasca Oil CorpEnergy0.57-42.42303
8ADVZ-TAdvanz Pharma CorpBio14.7-42.93673
9CFX-TCanfor Pulp Products IncForestry9.08-43.99574
10UNS-TUni Select IncAuto10.79-44.41456
11MDF-TMediagrif InteracIT5.23-45.2981
12MPVD-TMountain Province DiamondsDiamonds1.04-46.67223
13HNL-THorizon North Logistics IncEnergy Service0.95-47.22155
14IMV-TImmunovaccine IncBio3.58-47.89186
15DII-B-TDorel Industries Inc Cl.B SvRetail Wholesale9.1-48.41292
16LGO-TLargo Resources LtdMetals1.37-51.59728
17PONY-TPainted Pony Energy LtdEnergy0.68-54.36114
18PEY-TPeyto ExplorationEnergy3.2-54.8554
19BNP-TBonavista Energy CorpEnergy0.54-55149
20DR-TMedical Facilities CorpHospitals6.74-55.19211
21NVA-TNuvista Energy LtdEnergy1.61-60.54370
22MAV-TMav Beauty Brands IncBeauty4.11-61.52155
23SNC-TSnc-Lavalin SvEngineering16.41-64.262,858
24OBE-TObsidian Energy LtdEnergy1.27-64.4397
25TRST-TCanntrust Holdings IncCannibis2.3-64.99335
26JE-TJust Energy Group IncEnergy Retail1.46-67.63227
27TRQ-TTurquoise Hill Resources LtdMetals0.58-74.221,187
28ZENA-TZenabis Global Inc.Cannibis1.06-82.33214
29PLI-TPrometic Life Sciences IncBio11.6-95.54280

Comments:

1: A bio company with an FDA approved small scale HIV medication (used in cases where mainline HIV treatments do not work), and a new product that is used for something called hard belly – which is a symptom in some long-term HIV patients as a side effect of the anti-retroviral drugs that they take to keep viral loads down. Stock is down because sales aren’t exactly going anywhere and those sales and marketing expenses are indeed quite high. Market cap is trading as if the company will get sold off (drug companies don’t capitalize their R&D expenses it takes to get a drug to market, so there is a bunch of hidden balance sheet value in the drugs, despite the relatively little revenues they get from them).

2, 25, 28: Are Marijuana companies, and I have no interest in analyzing them.

3: Indigo is a typical retail story. Their stock chart in the past 18 months is a straight line down. Aside from their lease commitments, their balance sheet isn’t in terrible shape and management has some time to decide what to do, but they are bleeding money at a frightening pace.

4, 7, 13, 17, 18, 19, 21, 24: Canadian oil/gas extraction companies, so I do not need to write further why they are trading down. 13 is an energy service company. My big surprise here is why there aren’t more companies on the down 40% list (doing some quick investigation, it is because most of them already got hammered in 2018 so the losses in 2019 relatively speaking isn’t as big).

5: A low margin food producer with a ton of debt on the balance sheet and bleeding cash. Not looking pretty.

6: Engineering firm impacted somewhat by oil and gas-related spending. Income statement shows they are treading water. They were able to raise financing from Canso at 7% for unsecured debt (rolling over an existing debt issue) and the balance sheet is not in terrible shape. May be a good possibility for a turnaround – given its market cap of $80 million in relation to its overall size (revenues will be roughly a billion in 2019), something to watch. Has a similar feel to IBI Group.

8: The old Concordia Pharma. Classic case of what happens when you over-leverage cash flows too much. They make a ton of cash, but they have a ton of debt and a ton of interest expenses.

9: Lumber has been killed for various reasons. Despite being from British Columbia, I should know more about the industry. Just a year ago it was trading at $27 and today it is nearly $9. The stock graph looks like a normal distribution curve. Despite the fact that their cash flows has been decimated year-to-year, they don’t have any debt and look like they can survive the cycle. Jimmy Pattison trying to take over Canfor Corporation (not the pulp subsidiary) for $16/share seems to be a case of trying to take them on the lows. Canfor owns 55% of Canfor Pulp.

10: I know less about automobile companies than forestry products. Skimming the financial statements, they just appear to be losing profitability and racking up debt.

11: A small IT firm that is undergoing a strategic change and also still looking for a new CEO. Still profitable, and with a relatively blank canvas balance sheet.

12: Owners of a 49% interest in a diamond mine in the N.W.T., and barely making enough to pay off their bank lenders. Will pass.

14: Early clinical stage biotech working on some cancer therapies, P2 studies have samples of less than 20 patients, and skimming the science, looks questionable.

15: Legitimate larger company that has been in a slow straight-line descent for the past three years. Three major product lines (babies, sports and furniture) are sold to major retailers worldwide. Management (Schwartz – family-controlled dual-stock corporation) has been around for a very long time, albeit they seem to be highly overpaid. They resolved an upcoming debt maturity last June with a 7.5% unsecured debt note (not convertible) and this will buy them time to figure out how to improve margins. Cash flows from operations have been diminishing, and they already once cut their dividend, and it is due for another cut. However, given the ~$300 market cap and $2.5 billion in revenues, the potential for a turnaround here is reasonably good, except for this looming worldwide recession coming which would surely impact this company’s fortunes!

16: They mine a commodity I know nothing about (Vanadium), in a country I know very little about (Brazil).

20: This one is interesting. A company that owns majority or near-majority stakes in a few hospitals in the USA and distributes most of its free cash. The only problem being that in the past few quarters, they have really underperformed. If they can figure out what they did wrong and reverse it, then the stock is an easy double from their depressed price. It was bond-like until the bottom fell out of it in the May and August quarterly reports. If there was a candidate for year-end tax loss selling, this one would be it. Another interesting quirk is that their distribution rate on a historical basis is now at a 17% yield. This distribution was below their cash generation in prior years, but not from the first half of this year. It’s likely they’ll cut this dividend unless if they think the past couple quarters was temporary. Knowing about the US healthcare industry, especially in the states that DR operates in, coupled with competitive dynamics of healthcare and competitors will help.

22: Cosmetics company that went public in July 2018 for CAD$14/share (proceeds to pay down debt with IPO). Now it is trading at $4.11/share, which is a fairly good 70% negative return on investment. The company is now barely profitable, but still isn’t at the level which supports the debt on its balance sheet. Still, cosmetics is a pretty high leverage industry to be in if your revenues start to take traction – and their revenues are growing. Might be interesting, considering that beauty products sell in any economic climate! Unfortunately, you won’t see me wearing any…

23: SNC. Enough said. There’s tons of industry analysts out there looking at this one. Their partial sale of the 407 freeway around Toronto will buy them a lot of time to get their act together, but in the meantime, their operations are a total mess. There will probably be a time to buy this one but it will take awhile, and likely more corruption from the federal government is required for a positive outcome (i.e. if Trudeau gets re-elected, it would be a positive for SNC for sure).

26: Balance sheet is a train wreck, company is exploring a recapitalization, and the business model itself is highly broken. Good luck!

27: Another mining company working in a jurisdiction I know hardly anything about (Mongolia), let alone I can’t even pronounce the name of its main flagship mine. Don’t have any more insight than that, sadly.

28: The big loser in the TSX is due to a debt-to-equity recapitalization and a 1:1000 reverse stock split. After the recap they did get rid of a bunch of debt on the balance sheet and raised some cash, which they need in order to bide their time to get FDA approval for their lead product. They burnt about $50 million cash in the first half of the year and have about $80 million left on the balance sheet, so looks like they’ll have to raise more financing…

TSX Bargain Hunting – Stock Screen Results

I’ve been doing some shotgun approaches to seeing what’s been trashed in the Canadian equity markets. Here is a sample screen:

1. Down between 99% to 50% in the past year;
2. Market cap of at least $50 million (want to exclude the true trash of the trash with this screen)
3. Minimum revenues of $10 million (this will exclude most biotech blowups that discover their only Phase 3 clinical candidate is the world’s most expensive placebo)

We don’t get a lot. Here’s the list:

September 1, 2017 TSX - Underperformers

1-Year performance -99% to -50%
Minimum Market Cap $50M
Minimum Revenues $10M
#CompanySymbolYTD (%)1 Year (%)3 Year (%)5 Year (%)
1Aimia Inc.AIM-T-74.89-72.74-86.9-84.6
2Aralez Pharmaceuticals Inc.ARZ-T-73.77-76.19-56.6
3Asanko Gold Inc.AKG-T-62.86-71.4-38.8-58.1
4Black Diamond GroupBDI-T-58.41-56.78-93.7-91.4
5Cardinal Energy Ltd.CJ-T-60.91-51.8-79.7
6Concordia InternationalCXR-T-42.81-85.24-95.6-69.2
7Crescent Point EnergyCPG-T-53.04-56.72-80.8-79.1
8Dundee Corp.DC.A-T-51.6-51.76-84.7-87.4
9Electrovaya Inc.EFL-T-42.72-61.8822201.2
10Home Capital GroupHCG-T-55.42-52.16-74.3-45.2
11Jaguar MiningJAG-T-54.31-62.14-55.8-99.7
12Mandalay Resources CorpMND-T-53.75-66.36-65.7-52.6
13Newalta CorpNAL-T-56.9-59.68-95.5-92.7
14Painted Pony EnergyPONY-T-64.97-60.94-77.4-65.9
15Pengrowth EnergyPGF-T-60.62-59.57-88.9-88.6
16Redknee SolutionsRKN-T-51.92-64.95-78.2-41.4
17Tahoe ResourcesTHO-T-53.04-66.27-78.2-66.9
18Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl.VRX-T-15.25-56.68-87.4-67.3
19Western Energy ServicesWRG-T-61.61-55.09-88.6-82.7

Now we try to find some explanations why this group of companies are so badly underperforming – is the price action warranted?

1, 8, 10 and 18 are companies with well-known issues that have either been explored on this site or obvious elsewhere (e.g. Valeant).

2 is interesting – they clearly are bleeding cash selling drugs, they have a serious amount of long-term debt, but they have received a favorable ruling in a patent lawsuit against (a much deeper-pocketed) Mylan. There could be value here, and will dump this into the more detailed research bin.

3, 11, 12 and 17 Are avoids for reasons I won’t get into here that relate to the typical issues that concern most Canadian-incorporated companies operating foreign gold mines, although 12 appears to be better than 3 and 11. 17 has had huge issues with the foreign government not allowing them to operate their primary silver mine.

4, 13 and 19 are fossil fuel service companies.

5, 7, 14 and 15 are established fossil fuel extraction companies with their own unique issues in terms of financing, profitability and solvency – if you ever predicted a rise in crude oil pricing, a rising tide will lift all boats, but they will lift some more than others (specifically those that are on the brink will rise more than those that are not). 14 is different than the other three in that it is mostly natural gas revenue-based (northeast BC) which makes it slightly different than the other three which warrants attention.

6 If you could take a company that clearly makes a lot of money, and drown it in long-term debt, this would be your most prime example. It just so happens they sell pharmaceuticals. Sadly their debt isn’t publicly traded but if it was, I’d be interested in seeing quotations.

9 A cash-starved company selling a novel lithium-ceramic battery at negative gross margins would explain the price drop. Looks like dilution forever!

16 Lots of financial drama here in this technology company. They went through a debt recapitalization where a prior takeover was interrupted by a superior bid. Control was virtually given at this point and the new acquirer is using the company for strategic purposes that do not seem to be in line with minority shareholder interests. A rights offering has been recently conducted that will bring some cash back into the balance sheet, but the underlying issue is that the financials suggest that they aren’t making money, which would be desirable for all involved.