BMO Equity Research IN Tune

With the U.S. Presidential election results still hanging in the balance, BMO Capital Markets hosted a client call to discuss investment strategy based on what we know so far. The call, hosted by BMO Capital Markets Chief Investment Strategist Brian Belski, also featured expert commentary from Margaret Kerins, Managing Director and Head of FICC Macro Strategy, and Michael Gregory, Deputy Chief Economist and Head of U.S. Economics.Our experts urged caution around premature investment decisions ahead of the final results, and instead focused on what we do know, like the likelihood of a gridlocked Congress and what that will mean for stimulus, future leadership of the Fed, and the importance of equity markets to overall portfolios.To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

Special Situations Analyst Stephen MacLeod and his Associate, Nevan Yochim, discuss recent developments in e-commerce. E-commerce growth has been, and is expected to continue, outpacing traditional bricks and mortar retail sales growth. While the shift towards e-commerce has been happening over many years, COVID-19 has accelerated the pace of adoption for companies and consumers alike. Stephen and Nevan discuss the role of physical stores in light of e-commerce adoption, identify three important characteristics that define “winning” retailers, outline potential risks, and touch on earnings implications for their retail and consumer product coverage universe.To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

BMO Capital Markets' Telco, Cable, and Media analyst Tim Casey discusses the implications and status of 5G deployment, the path to use cases, and milestones for investors to benchmark from a Canadian perspective.BMO clients can view our two reports, “5G: It's a Marathon, but Still a Race”, and "5G’s Field of Dreams: If You Build It, Will They Come?" by visiting: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/research/42269e7b-5730-4529-9a37-2cb67e6b65f3/andhttps://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/research/ebd5bd4f-f5d2-45d4-bc4f-b7b164e2eef6/To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

For the first time in recent history, retailers are choosing how many stores to open, not how many to close. In this podcast, we delve into our counter-intuitive claim that the pandemic created a (hopefully) once in a lifetime ”opportunity” for companies to focus on health, rather than growth - re-fashioning businesses for the future and using a “COVID-19 Cover” to ponder whether stronger is better achieved via smaller. At the risk of oversimplifying, we see two options: 1) store closures to cut costs and 2) reducing promotions to elevate the brand. Here, we dive deep to assess and quantify the impact from both, analyzing the nuance in pursuit of an optimal combination.BMO Clients can view our report, "Did COVID Actually Save Retail? Deep Dive Into a Post Pandemic Path to Profits", by visiting: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/research/93ca27c5-1dcd-432b-b226-8ee9b7bf1638/

In this podcast, two senior BMO analysts – Colin Hamilton and Brian Quast – examine the new price environment for gold and how companies have responded. After an introduction to our current gold price outlook, we dive into a discussion of how companies can behave differently, both on an operational level, and on a corporate level. Leverage to higher gold prices is discussed along with capital discipline and capital returns to shareholders.To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

Education analyst Jeff Silber discusses the impact of the pandemic on the education sector. While loath to call any sector a "winner" during the current crisis, education would fit as more schools go online and need assistance from the many companies in this space that have been doing this successfully for years. In addition, he believes the pandemic has accelerated the acceptance of online learning as a modality, which should continue to spur growth even when the pandemic ends.To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

Over the next 12-24 months, parcel and courier companies are expected to benefit from several demand drivers. A cyclical recovery is expected to support improving B2B shipments while the COVID-19 virus has accelerated the adoption of e-commerce, supporting secular growth in B2C volumes. The pandemic has also grounded the global passenger aircraft fleet, which is expected to return into service at a slower rate than the recovery in freight demand; this could result in a multi-year positive supply/demand balance in air freight. We see durable competitive advantages for Canadian air cargo carrier Cargojet, which focuses on the more profitable “middle mile” service rather than the lower-margin “last mile.” The company’s dominant market share is also protected by cabotage laws that prevent big couriers such as Amazon, UPS, and FedEx from taking the middle mile in house.BMO clients can view our Cargojet initiation report, “Initiating at Outperform: Moving Up in the New World”, by visiting: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/research/1200cd1d-e74c-4fe8-be31-c9f54084eb60/Our last mile logistics report, “Delivery Dilemma: How E-Commerce is Disrupting Last Mile Logistics” can be accessed by visiting: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/research/d42a28f4-66c1-48fc-a1f2-4fc55ca335a7/To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

BMO’s industry-leading Materials team explores key takeaways from this year’s record-breaking Chemicals & Packaging Conference, for both corporate and investor attendance. The event, highlighted by fireside chats with 32 of the Chemical and Packaging Industries’ leading executives, provided detailed thoughts around near-term fundamentals and challenges in the current COVID-19 landscape ranging from demand trends to employee safety to updated thoughts on capital allocation. Equally important were some of the longer-term trends and opportunities identified by these industry leaders regarding growth in the new normal.On today’s podcast Mark “Dr. Paper” Wilde and John McNulty provide thoughts, context, and color on these trends and opportunities, as well as their insights as to how investors should be positioned for alpha generation over the next 12-18 months in the Chemical and Packaging Sectors.To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

Almost overnight, the COVID-19 pandemic has given us a glimpse into the future of work, and introduced a new and potentially material risk to the office market ecosystem. Its impact will be hotly discussed but challenging to measure and forecast for a long time. As companies rethink their office space requirements, the jury is still out on the adoption of the work-from-home (WFH) theme over the long term. For office REITs, valuation is at levels not seen in several years and can be considered attractive even with prevailing uncertainty on the office outlook. However, we believe office REITs are likely to be range-bound until there are more definitive indications of where office demand will settle out.BMO clients can view our report, “The Jury Is Still Out on the Office Sector”, by visiting: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/research/6545e0b0-b93a-4a27-ac31-2affa42611db/To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/

Five host analysts from BMO’s 5th Annual Prescriptions for Success Healthcare Conference explore their key takeaways related to multiple value drivers across the healthcare industry along with evolving dynamics from COVID-19, which they gleaned from fireside chats and presentations, as well as moderated panels with several thought leaders. This year, the conference was held in a virtual setting, and similar to prior years, it was highlighted by discussions with senior executives from almost 60 leading companies across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and healthcare services sectors. The companies spanned the globe and market capitalization spectrum. The conference also featured a keynote discussion with Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, a leading epidemiologist and health economist, a physician panel on atopic dermatitis and psoriasis, and a conversation with an expert on health insurance trends.In addition to discussing industry- and company-specific themes and broader sector insights, Gary Nachman (Specialty Pharmaceuticals analyst), Matt Luchini/George Farmer/ Do Kim (Biotechnology analysts), and Matt Borsch (Managed Care & Healthcare Services analyst) also discuss companies within their respective coverage universes that may be best positioned to outperform over the longer term based on these insights.To access our full disclosures, please visit: https://researchglobal0.bmocapitalmarkets.com/public-disclosure/