2019 has been a good year for Canadian investors. The S&P TSX Composite index has returned 20.63% from a year ago, as of December 16th, and the S&P 500 has returned 20.7% in Canadian dollar terms, for the same period.
As a result, most stocks have performed really well. The top-performing stock in the S&P/TSX Composite index is up a whopping 216.74%. Here’s a look at the five stocks with the highest returns since last year:
Name |
Ticker |
Industry |
Alacer Gold Corp |
ASR |
Gold |
Shopify Inc A |
SHOP |
Software - Application |
Silvercorp Metals Inc |
SVM |
Silver |
Eldorado Gold Corp |
ELD |
Gold |
Ballard Power Systems Inc |
BLDP |
Specialty Industrial Machinery |
Morningstar Direct Data as of 12/17/2019
Of the five, three are in precious metals. This makes sense; gold has had a strong run in 2019, as factors including a weaker dollar, US-Iran tension, global growth fears and a u-turn from the world’s central banks have all worked in the precious metal’s favour. Having said that, we at Morningstar do not recommend investing in gold. As Morningstar Investment Management’s Dan Kemp says, “These commodities have little intrinsic value, returns are governed by the balance of demand and supply together with the degree of speculation present in the market.”
Next, let’s take a look at the best-performing stocks in our coverage universe. The only common stock is Shopify (SHOP), which also was the best performing stock of the first half of 2019.
Name |
1-yr Return |
Economic Moat |
Moat Trend |
Morningstar Rating |
Price / Fair Value |
Shopify Inc A |
175.72 |
Narrow |
Stable |
1 |
2.26 |
Air Canada Class B |
96.15 |
None |
Stable |
3 |
0.94 |
Ceridian HCM Holding Inc |
76.47 |
Narrow |
Stable |
||
BRP Inc |
63.95 |
Narrow |
Stable |
3 |
0.98 |
Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd |
53.39 |
None |
Stable |
2 |
1.29 |
Power Corporation of Canada |
45.84 |
None |
Stable |
2 |
1.17 |
Kinross Gold Corp |
45.71 |
None |
Stable |
3 |
0.98 |
AGF Management Ltd |
45.39 |
None |
Negative |
3 |
0.97 |
Power Financial Corp |
44.09 |
None |
Stable |
2 |
1.24 |
Thomson Reuters Corp |
42.06 |
Narrow |
Stable |
1 |
1.44 |
Morningstar Direct Data as of 12/17/2019
These returns are pretty impressive. However, they’re all trading 3-stars or below, meaning they’re either fairly valued, or overvalued. So, are there any bargains to be had right now?
Absolutely. Three stocks in our coverage universe are trading at less than half of what we believe is their fair value. And all three are in cannabis:
Name |
1-yr Return |
Economic Moat |
Moat Trend |
Morningstar Rating |
Price / Fair Value |
Aurora Cannabis Inc |
-57.78 |
None |
Stable |
5 |
0.29 |
Curaleaf Holdings Inc |
13.99 |
None |
Stable |
5 |
0.38 |
Canopy Growth Corp |
-35.40 |
None |
Stable |
5 |
0.45 |
Morningstar Direct Data as of 12/17/2019
As Morningstar analyst Kristoffer Inton says, this is definitely the time to buy on dips for Canadian cannabis. However, he cautions that cannabis warrants a long-term view. “In the near term, it's not going to take overnight to open enough stores, to get distribution right and to get the products lined up. So, it won't happen in the next quarter or so. But if an investor is patient and willing to wait, they'll be able to get exposure to a long runway of growth,” he says.