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High Liner FoodsHLF.TOCOMMENTNov 04, 2015Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 19, 2026. Market Open.
The company is 120 years old and is the leading brand in North America in frozen value added seafood, number 1 in the Canadian retail segment and number 1 in the U.S. food services segment. Eating fish is considered a healthy alternative to eating meats and although Americans are not big fish eaters, there is good growth potential as attitudes may change. It is paying down debt as well as increasing the dividend by 30% and it recently reported record results. Trades at 7X earnings and insiders own 40%, almost unheard of.
He decided to keep the name because the yield is safe and good. It is a touch business. They are doing value added food processing on many types of fish. Margins have been squeezed. He thinks this might be coming to an end. The shrimp farm in Asia looks like it is fixed. The company has value at some point. It is the kind of name that private equity tends to gravitate to. He thinks it should be trading higher, but it is not a momentum name.
A really interesting stock. It has gone down quite a bit in the last little while, yet it maintains all the criteria of a good investment. Steady dividend and steady dividend growth. This is a perfect storm of low Cdn$, US customer base and they are buying all their products from the US. Thinks they can earn $1.50 next year versus $1.25 this year, which is a nice turnaround. He is looking at this. Dividend yield of 3.6%.