In Canada, Metro (MRU/TSX) delivered very good results, as has been the trend for Canadian grocers. The following is in Canadian dollars.
Second-quarter non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.96.
Revenue of $4.55 billion (+6.6% year-over-year).
Food same-store sales up 5.8%.
Pharmacy same-store sales up 7.3%.
Apple continues its push into fintech
Apple (AAPL/NASDAQ) is one of my favourite companies and perhaps my favourite stock holding. It is one of my three U.S. stock picks from 2014. From the time I picked up Apple, it has beaten the S&P 500 by more than 16% annually.
My other picks include BlackRock (BLK/NYSE) and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B/NYSE) as a defensive (bring on that recession pick).
Apple recently made another fintech push with a partnership with Goldman Sachs to deliver a high-interest savings account offering in the U.S. From that news article:
“Apple joined the competition for bank deposits on Monday with the launch of a high-yield savings account that pays an annual percentage yield of 4.15%. The high-yield savings accounts, available in conjunction with Apple’s credit card, are one of the tech company’s latest steps into the financial-services space, which also include an option to allow customers to ‘buy now, pay later’ on certain of its hardware products.”
Apple is also moving some production to India. CEO Tim Cook travelled to India to open the first Apple store in a country that many economists feel could be an economic powerhouse in the future. It’s expected that India will pass China some time this summer to become the world’s most populous country.
Apple can move into new offerings where it can deliver great products within the sensible bounds of the brand. But it can stretch the product offering beyond our expectations. Think back to Apple moving into digital music, and then smartphones, essentially creating categories.
It’s a great company, but a very expensive stock IMHO. The stock’s forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio—calculated by dividing the stock price by projected earnings per share—is high, at 27.17 (as of April 21). I’m glad that I already own it.
Bitcoin to the moon?
As you may know, I wrote the go-to piece 😉 on bitcoin as an investment, back in January 2021. Gold makes a balanced portfolio better. And for me and many others, bitcoin is modern or digital gold. From that column: