Dundee: high value and above-average risk

Article Excerpt

DUNDEE CORP. $17 (Toronto symbol DC.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 54.1 million; Market cap: $919.7 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.dundeecorp.com) owns businesses in the wealth management, real estate, natural resource and agriculture industries. The company lost $92.6 million, or $1.88 a share, in 2013. That’s a big drop from the $25.2 million, or $0.29 a share, it earned in 2012. Revenue fell 6.3%, to $200.7 million from $214.2 million. The declines are mainly because weak commodity prices hurt the contribution of Dundee’s resource holdings. As well, fewer firms issued shares in 2013, which hurt profits at its Dundee Securities brokerage firm. The company is also spending more to expand its agriculture businesses, which further depressed results. However, Dundee’s investment portfolio (excluding its consolidated subsidiaries) had a market value of $1.2 billion on December 31, 2013. That’s equal to 1.3 times its market cap. Dundee is still a buy. buy…