Investment Q&A

Q: Hi, any thoughts on the ~20% rise in FOM over the last 2 weeks? I don't see any news to explain the rise. Thanks

Q: Hydrogen stock Nel ASA, Thyssenkrupp and dynaCERT.

Do you think Hydrogen will ever become popular?

Do you think any of these company's would be worth investing in?

Thank you.

Q: Happy New Year 5i Team - I noticed the category 'Hidden Gems' in a communication from sometime in the past. Would you be able to provide a list of a few stocks that might fit into this category now, solid companies that have sold off for whatever reasons in spite of solid fundamentals and good growth prospects, US and Canadian. Any market cap is fine but with emphasis on small and mid caps
Thanks.

Q: I realize that these are very volatile markets (especially for small caps) but do you think that the preliminary Q4 and YE 2025 results released by KITS yesterday deserved a 9% haircut to the SP?

Appreciate your great work and Happy New Year to the team.

Q: Seemingly, recently, news on kits indicated thumbs up. I can"t figure out why the stock
dropped substantially. What am I missing? Your thoughts.

Q: I was just sent this update on the recent ZDC action from a fund manager that follows (and is a shareholder of) ZDC. I thought you might be interested. Feel free to publish it if you think it would be of value to your members.

After a total senseless decline in ZDC shares, let me summarize it for everyone following the group investor call yday. Sidebar, insiders are buying stock and the first filing hit this morning. Mgmt and board all intend to buy more shares. You want to bet against a company that has beaten consensus eight consecutive quarters?



Ring's tower is an off the shelf, hardware offering with no service, monitoring, or installation. It's a Chinese camera, no analytics, no infrared. In fact, it's half the height of the ZDC tower, so it was clearly not designed for large scale commercial, where ZDC is focused. Meaning ZERO overlap.
Amazon now has 20 towers with ZDC and ZDC is the ONLY tower provider to Amazon. In fact, Amazon took two more towers THIS WEEK.
ZDC now has MANY enterprise customers with towers and awaiting orders. Kruger, Home Depot, Circle K, Seven Eleven, Amazon.
The Kroger contract with LVT expires on Jan 31. All indications that this should be ZDC's contract. What happens if you wake up tomorrow to 500-1000 towers ordered by Kroger? The stock would be back at all-time highs in my view
the company was very explicit that they will use the balance sheet this year to fund growth and will be expanding the credit facility with the established accordion. No equity bailout for anyone. Leverage never gets above 2.5x
the stock is trading at 8x 2027 EBITDA for a company growing EBITDA 100% YoY. The most recent takeout in the space was Guarda buying Stealth last year for 21x FY1 EBITDA versus 13x 2026 for ZDC
Simple supply / demand: after the washout yday, 30 investors met with mgmt. ZDC has one of the best registers I have seen for a small cap and many more large LO buyers in the weeds. I am certain that I know who will win the showdown. The AUM for these funds dwarfs the AUM of hedge funds and retail.

Cheers

Scott

Q: I have held LNR for a couple of years now and it has recently been in an uptrend. I was looking at a 20 year chart and it has just broke the all time high set 15 years ago or is about to hard to tell for sure on the chart I was looking at. While I am not a technical guy with stocks does this have any significance either technically or in general. Thanks

Q: thoughts on Hycroft Mining Corporation (HYMC)?

Q: Hi 5i Team,

I was reading one of your recent responses where the idea came up that small caps are “long overdue” for a run. I’ve been hearing the same sentiment on CNBC and from other market commentators, so it got me thinking.

I’m not fully convinced that something is necessarily due to outperform just because it hasn’t gone up in a long time. I’m not sure how much of this is genuine opportunity versus a narrative around sector rotation. Large caps have treated me fairly well since I started investing, whereas my early experience with small-cap mining stocks was, frankly, a disaster.

That said, markets often move on sentiment and momentum as much as fundamentals. If enough people believe small caps are about to run, they often do — regardless of whether they’re truly “overdue.”

With that in mind, I’m curious:
If you had to narrow it down to five small-cap names to choose from for a potential small-cap run, which ones would you consider most attractive right now — either due to fundamentals, positioning, or momentum?

I realize Nike isn’t a small cap, but if I can’t get comfortable with a small-cap thesis, I’d likely just default to something like that. I’ve also wondered whether a beaten-down name like Krispy Kreme would qualify as a small-cap candidate with rebound potential.

In short, I’m looking for a short list of small caps that could realistically double or triple if the “small caps are going to run” narrative plays out.

Thanks, and I appreciate your insight.

Best regards,

Q: What is your opinion about this Co.? On NAZDAQ as GridAI Technologies Corp.
Thanks for all your support in 2025!

Q: FYI I came across the reason for the drop in ZDC I thought you might be interested in - Amazon’s Ring Doorbell division announced a Ring Camera on a small trailer product yesterday at CES. After reading their operational update and a few analyst's "Takeaways" from this news, I added to my holdings as they are catering to a completely different market than Amazon and demand remains extremely strong. Below is the update and some analysts updates.





Operational update:

* Exit-Q4/25 service fleet had 2,783 towers (+18% Q/Q, and above our expected 2,711).

* Tower output capability now at 50 per week (for context, we have been assuming per week output of 30 during Q4/25, 45 during Q1/26, and 50 during Q2/26; this near-term path is already nicely de-risked).

* Currently moving into new/bigger manufacturing facility in Houston that will boost output capacity by ~50% (to implied 85-90 per week; for context, our growth forecast is based on 65 per week in Q4/26+, suggesting there are no capacity bottlenecks).

* Snowballing success with larger type of national/enterprise customers; a national contract has been signed with an existing major homebuilder client (enables quicker deployment of towers to satisfy their demand in more regions); also recently signed up a new furniture retailer that has 250 locations in U.S.; also have multiple trials/RFPs that are active with major new customers.

* Plans are in place to continue boosting regional presence in U.S., and the size of the sales team in both Canada and the U.S. where they see no shortage of demand; based on our recent chats with management, we think the exit-Q1/26 regional sales team (ex. national accounts team) will be >2x vs. the count that existed during the last reported quarter.



Takeaway: We think the update previews that Q4/25 results will beat expectations, based on the reported size of the fleet, and based on our recent chats about demand, utilization, pricing, and sales team performance. We also think the business momentum/capabilities being highlighted previews a need for Street forecasts to eventually increase (Street expectations for late-2026 and 2027 look low vs. Cormark estimates).



Addressing the Ring media headlines:

* Ring (Amazon’s video camera and doorbell cam platform) revealed a new product launch yesterday and it triggered weakness for ZDC’s stock, but the product does not overlap with the market and demand that ZDC is addressing.

* The new Ring product is a video camera on a mobile and self-powered tower (12 feet high); Ring will sell the tower equipment to customers starting at a cost of US$5 K, and buyers can self-deploy the tower unit wherever they want; footage is stored and the owner of the tower can also self-monitor the video as desired (or get a non-Ring, third-party to watch it for added/undisclosed fees); it’s essentially like a doorbell cam, but a more expensive and mobile version used to see small areas.

* In contrast, ZDC does not sell any hardware (does not even rent any hardware); ZDC sells a comprehensive service (real time, live monitoring and response services covering large areas, with the service delivered using ZDC’s own hardware and monitoring staff; even the hardware ZDC is using is very different / 2x size / costly vs. the product Ring is selling).

* There is an existing and crowded market for this type of new Ring product, with many small companies offering it (for many years, especially in the U.S.), but it’s not a market ZDC has been, or will be, involved in.

* We also note that Amazon itself continues to use ZDC’s service, including consuming more of ZDC’s fleet capacity as recently as yesterday at more of their distribution centers (with more orders expected beyond yesterday’s deployments).



Takeaway: The Ring headlines should have zero impact on ZDC’s financial profile momentum that will ultimately power ZDC’s stock price; we think this is a brief trading-type selloff, and a continued selloff is a stock buying opportunity given the setup of standout growth, room for forecast increases, and valuation that still has room to expand (stock trading at mature/low-growth <15x cash EPS vs. our modelled exit-2026 run-rate, a point in time that should be no where close to maturity for ZDC’s growth curve).





This morning, ZDC provided an operational update and its strategic growth roadmap for 2026. Impact: slightly positive.

Fleet growth. The MobileyeZ fleet grew 108% yoy and 18% sequentially in 4Q, reaching 2,783 towers as at 4Q25 vs our estimate of 2,819; 52% of the fleet is now in the US (higher vs our estimate, demonstrating US expansion efforts). The company is also significantly building out its salesforce and its national account sales team. Recall that we model a fleet of ~5,000 exiting 2026 and ~7,700 exiting 2027.
New wins. The firm has secured new customers and expanded tower count with existing clients within the home builder security market. Enterprise sales efforts have made significant progress, with the signing of national account paperwork with the largest US homebuilder, an existing customer. Additionally, ZDC committed towers to a large US SE furniture retailer with 250+ locations and meaningful capacity to deploy more towers. ZDC is actively supporting trials for multiple large enterprise retailers while in advanced stages of RFP processes with some of the largest companies in the US.
US geographical expansion and growing sales team. ZDC has expanded its geographical footprint with service centre locations in the US Midwest and Northeast. In addition, ZDC is aggressively growing its sales team in 1Q26 in both Canada and the US, as well as the national account sales team, as it looks to expand into new industry verticals and regions.
Weekly production. It reached 50 towers/week, with production continuing to grow with capacity (is also slightly ahead of our forecast).
New Houston manufacturing facility and monitoring centre. ZDC is moving into its new Houston production facility in 1Q26, increasing its manufacturing floor space by 50%. While current capacity is 50 towers weekly, the new facility provides the ability to significantly expand its footprint and support additional enterprise customers. In addition, ZDC has finalized a lease for a 15,000sf monitoring facility in Houston to support its growing operations and deliver uninterrupted security services. The centre is already staffed, with additional room available for future expansion.
Our take on Amazon Ring entering the commercial market. While this presents a negative headline risk, it does not deter us from our robust growth outlook expectations for ZDC. Our understanding is that the product offering is mostly hardware-led, catered toward more DIY and price-sensitive customers, with minimal servicing. Most importantly, there is no live 24/7 monitoring (or will need to hire a third-party firm). We note that Amazon acquired both Ring and Blink back in 2018, demonstrating a buy vs build preference.

Q: In the past month ELVA has doubled. Why?

Has it run ahead of itself that is quite an increase in a very short period of time.

Should one wait for a retracement?

Thanks

Sheldon

Q: Do you see any news to account for the steep drop today (now 9%)? Are you still ok with it?

Q: I think you believe all of these companies are buys.How would you rate them and which would you prefer to buy today? I already have small positions HPS.a and PNG.

Q: What would be your top 5 small cap recommendations in order 1 being your highest conviction

Q: Good Morning and Happy New Year !!
CGX used to be a market darling prior to Covid 19. Their long serving CEO is slated to retire in 2026. According to a BNN guest, the CEO's employment contract has a clause whereby he would receive a payment of $12 Million CDN if the company was sold prior to his retirement. Prior to the pandemic, Cineworld agreed to purchase Cineplex for $2.8 Billion. That of course fell through and CGX received a settlement of $1.23 Billion from Cineworld.
The BNN guest felt that CGX shareholders would fetch north of $30 per share if a transaction were to take place.
I just was curious as to your opinion of this situation ?
Thank you so much for all that you do. DL

Q: I recently decided that this drone firm was worth a roll of the dice. Drones are clearly the weapon of the future as we're witnessing in Ukraine. Canada needs to get up to speed with this technology and according to the corporate marketing blurbs it is supposed to be happening, although at a choppy pace. I know it's a small cap with the inherent risks. What do you think? Can the Federal defense dept. get their act together and help to nurture this important industry sector?

Q: Based on your prediction that small caps may do better than large caps in 2026, which of the above do you think are ready to giddy up ie: best chance for a 12 month return > 15%. Thank you

Q: Re: Mayfair Gold Corp and Snowline Gold Corp

Watched an interesting interview with Darren Mclean who highlighted a couple of gold companies:
MFG (not listed on your database yet) and SGD.
He's the one who actually flew satellites over mining projects and read drill reports personally to decide whether projects were a "scam" or legit.

What drew me to this was the idea that Muddy Waters and Darren Mclean are taking long positions in these companies, despite their primary business being short sellers.

Here is the original article by Larry McDonald of the Globe and Mail, including the video link:

Video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYA3S3N-dgQ&list=PLHXV1yDW9VX9Nu7g6mQVCTL5fzzDCmg9C&index=37

Article:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/inside-the-market/article-short-sales-on-the-tsx-what-bearish-investors-are-betting-against-72/?utm_source=Shared+Article+Sent+to+User&utm_medium=LinkCopy&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links

Wondering what your thoughts are on these two companies, especially as share prices have run up parabolically on SGD?
My interest would be in small speculative positions only.

Thanks and happy holidays.

Q: SAGA Metals Corp. (TSX-Venture: SAGA)

Another propaganda miner trying to get investors to lose money?

Thank you.