Articles by David Barr

Value Fund – Q3 2024

Written by David Barr

Highlights The Fund has gained 38.4% year-to-date. Top contributor this quarter was Kraken Robotics Inc., (TSXV: PNG), a marine technology company. Thinkific Labs Inc. (TSX:THNC) was a detractor this quarter subsequent to their SIB as […]

October 22, 2024

Pender Small Cap – Manager’s Commentary – Q3 2024

Written by David Barr

Highlights Many positive contributors in the quarter, such as Kraken Technologies Limited, TerraVest Industries Inc., Altius Renewable Royalties Corp, Dye & Durham Ltd. and BlackLine Systems, Inc.. Thinkific was a key detractor in the quarter. […]

October 7, 2024

Value Fund – Q1 2024

Written by David Barr

Download the PDF. The Pender Value Fund had a strong start to the year, gaining 17.3%[1] in the first quarter of 2024. This result compares with gains of 6.6% in the S&P/TSX Composite Index and […]

April 26, 2024

Small Cap Equity – Q1 2024

Written by David Barr

Highlights The Fund generated excess returns mainly driven by company-specific performance. Rotation into high quality growth companies is now complete. The Fund exited several smaller positions and created new positions in a Canadian SaaS firm […]

April 16, 2024

Value Fund – Q4 2023

Written by David Barr

Highlights Positive performance in the Fund during the quarter was driven by by D2L Inc. (TSX: DTOL), Dye & Durham Ltd. (TSX: DND) and KKR and Co L.P (NYSE: KKR), Detractors included Baidu Inc. (Nasdaq: […]

January 22, 2024

Small Cap Equity – Q4 2023

Written by David Barr

Highlights The strong performance into year-end is indicative of a strengthening small cap market. A more stable interest rate environment and improved business strategies among small caps, we believe, will lead to increased M&A by […]

January 17, 2024

Value Fund – Q3 2023

Written by David Barr

Highlights During the quarter, we added Aecon Group Inc. (TSX:ARE) and Thinkific Labs Inc. (TSX:THNC). Canadian equities stood at 52.7% at the end of the quarter, up from 50.3% at the end of December 2022. […]

October 19, 2023

Small Cap Equity – Q3 2023

Written by David Barr

Highlights We continue to focus on the fundamentals, rotating into high quality businesses. We initiated new positions in two companies during the quarter that we have been following for a long time but have finally […]

October 12, 2023

Value Fund – Q2 2023

Written by David Barr

Highlights Sylogist Inc (TSX: SYZ) is the largest holding in the Fund and was a top contributor in the quarter. We have been active with the company over the last few months and have successfully […]

July 17, 2023

Small Cap Equity – Q2 2023

Written by David Barr

Highlights It was the first month of outperformance for small caps relative to large caps since February. Sylogist Inc. (TSX: SYZ) was a top contributor in the quarter. We are focused on reviewing our holdings […]

July 13, 2023

Value Fund – Q1 2023

Written by David Barr

HIGHLIGHTS At the end of the quarter, small caps were trading at a valuation of 14.5x forward P/E in the S&P 600 Index compared to 19.0x for the S&P 500 Index – a 4.5x discount. […]

May 4, 2023

Small/Mid Cap Dividend – Q1 2023

Written by David Barr

HIGHLIGHTS The Fund ended the quarter down -0.5% compared to the S&P/TSX Composite Index (4.6%) and the S&P/TSX SmallCap Index (4.5%) for the quarter. The indices were helped by their relative higher weight in commodities, […]

April 21, 2023

Small Cap Equity – March 2023

Written by David Barr

HIGHLIGHTS  Small-cap stocks have historically traded at a premium to large caps given their higher growth potential. However, we are now in a market when small caps trade at a significant discount to large caps.  […]

April 19, 2023

Value Fund – Outlook For 2023

Written by David Barr

HIGHLIGHTS Pender Value Fund returned 9.7%[1] in January, following a 4.7% gain in the fourth quarter. Technology holdings now represent the largest sector weight in the portfolio at 37.6% at the end of January, up […]

February 24, 2023

Small/Mid Cap Dividend – Q4 2022

Written by David Barr

HIGHLIGHTS Key positive drivers were Spartan Delta Corp (TSX: SDE), North American Construction Group Ltd. (TSX: NOA), Chorus Aviation Inc. (TSX: CHR) and Exchange Income Corporation (TSX: EIF). A new position is NFI Group Inc. […]

January 23, 2023

Small Cap Equity – December 2022

Written by David Barr

HIGHLIGHTS The Fund had a nice recovery in the fourth quarter with a return of 9.7%. Maxar Technologies Inc. (TSX: MAXR) was a top contributor to the portfolio after private equity firm Advent International made […]

January 18, 2023

Small/Mid Cap Dividend – November 2022

Written by David Barr

Fellow Unitholders, The Pender Small/Mid Cap Dividend Fund (PSMDF) returned a positive 3.6% in November, bringing year-to-date returns to -10.4%[1]. This compares to the TSX Small Cap Index returning -7.3% year-to-date and the TSX Composite […]

December 13, 2022

Small Cap Equity – September 2022

Written by David Barr

Fellow unit holders, The Pender Small Cap Opportunities returned -12.5% in September, bringing returns so far this year to -34.8%[1]. This was a challenging period for the Fund, which was up against a difficult market […]

October 17, 2022

Small Cap Equity – July 2022

Written by David Barr

Fellow unit holders, In a reversal of the weak equity market performance in the first half of the year, markets posted a strong rebound in July. The macro environment was again in focus with a […]

August 25, 2022

Small/Mid Cap Dividend – Q2 2022

Written by David Barr

Fellow Unitholders, It has been a volatile first half of the year that has seen significant drawdowns in equity markets as valuations have reset in anticipation of weaker economic growth in the coming quarters. Investors […]

July 21, 2022

Value Fund – June 2022

Written by David Barr

Fellow Unitholders, It has been a volatile first half of the year that has seen significant drawdowns in equity markets as valuations have reset in anticipation of weaker economic growth in the coming quarters. Investors […]

July 20, 2022

Small Cap Equity – June 2022

Written by David Barr

Fellow unit holders, It has been a volatile first half of the year that has seen significant drawdowns in equity markets as valuations have reset in anticipation of weaker economic growth going forward. Investors have […]

July 13, 2022

Value Fund – Manager’s Commentary – March 2022

Written by David Barr

Fellow unit holders, The first quarter of 2022 came to a close with mixed performance to start the year. Investors were focused on macro events on several fronts, including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, rising […]

April 20, 2022

Value Fund – January 2022

Written by David Barr

Fellow unit holders, It was a tough start to 2022, with January being one of the worst months ever for broad indices and our fund. The Pender Value Fund was down 7.0%[1] in January, while […]

February 22, 2022

Small Cap Equity – Manager’s Commentary – November 2020

Written by David Barr

Fellow Unitholders,  We had an early holiday wish come true in November. The Pender Small Cap Opportunities Fund had its highest monthly return in history1 – a whopping 19%2 for the month, ahead of the S&P 500 Index (CAD) with 8.1% and the S&P/TSX Composite Index with a 10.6% return. We hope there are more months like […]

December 16, 2020

Manager’s Commentary – August 2019 – David Barr

Written by David Barr

Fellow Unitholders, August was a tough month for our funds. Both the Pender Value and Pender Small Cap Opportunities Funds had a negative month, down -6.8% and -5.7%[1] respectively. While major indices like the S&P […]

September 16, 2019

Manager’s Commentary – July 2019 – David Barr

Written by David Barr

Fellow Unitholders, At the risk of sounding like a broken record, equity markets continued their upward trend during July with the S&P/TSX index total return of 34 basis points and the Russell 2000 total return […]

August 12, 2019

Manager’s Commentary – Q2 2019 – David Barr

Written by David Barr

Fellow Unitholders, We are happy to report that both the Pender Value and Pender Small Cap Opportunities Funds had positive quarters. The Pender Value Fund was up 5.5%[1] and the Pender Small Cap Opportunities Fund […]

July 16, 2019

Manager’s Commentary – Q1 2019 – David Barr

Written by David Barr

Fellow Unitholders, In our last commentary, we started by being thankful that 2018 was in the rear-view mirror and we were looking forward to 2019. It turns out that forces beyond our control have conspired […]

May 16, 2019

How Do Catalysts Form?

Written by David Barr

We have often talked about catalyst-driven investing, specifically in our blog post on Catalysts: Investing in “take-outs”. Another of the catalysts that can motivate a company to sell itself is prolonged stock price underperformance despite […]

February 21, 2019

Manager’s Quarterly Commentary – David Barr – Q1 2018

Written by David Barr

Increased Volatility and Continued Underperformance by Canadian Indices The Moment We’ve All Been Waiting For That was an interesting quarter. One thing didn’t change: Canada is out of favour. Canadian indices continued their lacklustre performance. […]

April 30, 2018

Investing like Ted Williams

Written by David Barr

Ted Williams played major league baseball for the Boston Red Sox for 19 years between 1939 and 1960 and went on to manage the Washington Senators and the Texas Rangers. Nicknamed “The Greatest Hitter Who […]

November 20, 2014

Investing Like Ted Williams

Written by David Barr

Williams came up with three rules to hit by that I think translate very well to value investing. There are two things I look forward to every year end. Spending time over the holidays with […]

January 14, 2014