Investment Q&A

IVN, with a mine ramping up, has big revenue and cash flow growth ahead of it, and huge leverage to commodity prices. This makes it expensive for now at 27X earnings, with no dividend, and the stock is down 24% YTD and 37% over 52 weeks. If copper does well, it likely will have huge earnings growth. It is a somewhat 'promoted' stock and this can make it volatile. Managment always tells only the best story and sometimes this can lead to disappointment. TECK.B, meanwhile, is cheaper at 24X and pays a 1.02% dividend. EPS is expected to dip this year and grow 25% next year. The balance sheet is now debt free, giving it a lot of flexibility to buy assets and/or simply ride out a recession. While both are copper stocks, TECK does have some diversity, and we would consider them fairly different, as TECK is far more established whereas IVN's mine has just gotten going. TECK has survived multiple recessions (though it got close to financial jeopardy in 2008 and had to raise equity from an Asian pension fund) and it has learned its survival lessons. We think taking some gains off the table and adding TECK makes good sense, but we would also be comfortable with owning some of each.