Articles by David Barr

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

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 – 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

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