Monthly Message

The Wutherich & Co. Composite was down 7.9% in August. This compares with the S&P/TSX up 0.4% and the BMO Small Cap Index down 0.5%.

The Wutherich & Co. Composite did take a hit in August, though still up 12.9% year-to-date. The balance of our companies reported during the month. While two or three of them showed weak numbers, the rest reported strong, or very strong, results. Numbers, good or bad, were met with heavy selling. In many cases, this seemed deeply irrational when several companies reported exceptional numbers with strong outlooks and still sold off double digit percentages (examples include Baylin Technologies, Opsens Inc. and Xebec Adsorption Inc.).

Clearly, there is a great deal of fear in the market with Trump’s unsettling actions, geo-politics and the maturity of the business cycle all playing a role. Also, small cap stocks, our bailiwick, may react more violently than their large cap brethren. Yet, when we see this kind of disconnect between stock prices and their underlying fundamentals, we become more convinced of their rate-of-return potential. We experienced this during the downturns of 2008-2009, August – September 2011 and the fourth quarter of 2018. In all cases, we increased our holdings in our highest conviction stocks and today, we have gone to minimum cash in the portfolio. No doubt, the market may still throw us a few curves and September is usually a difficult month. However, with the quality and the prospects of most of many of the names in our portfolio, we think we can generate significant returns over the coming years.

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Monthly Message The Wutherich & Co. Composite was up 0.3% in July. This compares with the S&P/TSX up 0.3% and the BMO Small Cap Index up 1.9%. The portfolio continues to navigate the summer doldrums at a lugubrious pace. Things may quicken with the release of second quarter results in the coming weeks. A few of […]

Monthly Message The Wutherich & Co. Composite was down 0.8% in June. This compares with the S&P/TSX up 2.5% and the BMO Small Cap Index up 4.6%. Weakness in a handful of weightings in the portfolio hurt performance in June. With one possible exception, we don’t think that there is anything to be concerned about with […]

Monthly Message The Wutherich & Co. Composite was down 3.2% in May. This compares with the S&P/TSX down 3.1% and the BMO Small Cap Index down 2.7%. Sell in May and go away? Well, we certainly saw some selling in May, egged on by a few Trump Tweets about trade. That strategy, however, seems like a […]

Monthly Message The Wutherich & Co. Composite was up 4.9% in April. This compares with the S&P/TSX up 3.2% and the BMO Small Cap Index down 0.3%. We submit our numbers to Mercer (a pension consultant) to compare how we have done versus our peer group. As of March 31, 2019, we rank #1 in the […]

Monthly Message The Wutherich & Co. Composite was up 2.7% in March. This compares with the S&P/TSX up 1.0% and the BMO Small Cap Index down 1.0%. The Wutherich & Co. Composite has now gained 31% from its low on Dec. 24, 2018 and now sits at an all-time high. At 21.4%, the first quarter […]

Monthly Message The Wutherich & Co. Composite was up 8.2% in February. This compares with the S&P/TSX up 3.1% and the BMO Small Cap Index up 3.5%. The Wutherich & Co. Portfolio has now gained 28% from its low on Dec. 24, 2018 bringing us back to about where we were at the end of […]

Monthly Message The Wutherich & Co. Composite was up 9.3% in January. This compares with the S&P/TSX up 8.7% and the BMO Small Cap Index up 8.6%. The Wutherich & Co. Portfolio has gained 18% from its low on Dec. 24, 2018. Just since the end of September we have experienced one of our worst […]

Monthly Message The Wutherich & Co. Composite was down 4.5% in December. This compares with the S&P/TSX down 5.4% and the BMO Small Cap Index down 3.8%. The Wutherich & Co. Portfolio did a partial u-ey in December. Though we didn’t get quite turned around, we did come back from an 11.6% deficit at one […]

Monthly Message The Wutherich & Co. Composite was up 0.3% in November. This compares with the S&P/TSX up 1.4% and the BMO Small Cap Index down 3.7%. The Wutherich & Co. Portfolio did a u-ey in November. With only four days left in the month we were down 4.1%. By month’s end, we were up 0.3%! […]