Q1 2024 Portfolio Review

All about the fungus

I want to say a quick hello to all the new followers. The subscriber base has grown quite a bit since the start of the year.

I honestly don’t enjoy doing these as much as some of my other posts. When I do well, it feels boastful and it always feels like a drop in performance is right around the corner. When I don’t do well, it can be hard to maintain my process and expect good times in the future. It goes without saying that one quarter is too short of a time to judge performance.

Q1 2024 Performance

What worked well - the stocks that went up. What didn’t work well - the stocks that didn’t. Just kidding. I’ll go through my positions and their performance for the quarter starting with worst. I consider it success if I’m keeping pace with the indexes when they rip 10% in the quarter.

• Nephros Inc ($NEPH) -36%

  • After a strong Q4 2024, NEPH essentially gave back all it’s gains from December 2023 to February 2024. I recently profiled the company, so check it out if you want some more information.

• Redishred Capital ($KUT.v) -4%

  • A flat quarter for KUT. We will start lapping better paper prices in a quarter or so and I’m expecting a potential narrative shift for KUT. I am working on a more thorough write-up so stay tuned.

• High Arctic Energy Services ($HWO.to) +4%

  • My arb play did nothing this quarter. Still waiting on some news. This has been a frustrating hold.

• Geodrill ($GEO.to) +9%

  • 2023 was a disappointing year for GEO. 2024 looks to be better. I have held my shares. I am looking to increase my exposure to precious metals to balance out Geodrill.

• OFS basket ($PSD.to, $MCB.to, $STEP.to, $PHX.to, $TOT.to, $PSI.to) +11ish%

  • This is a bit hard to calculate in aggregate with dividends. WTIC is stable and I’m expecting activity to be stronger in the back half of the year.

• Viemed ($VMD) +18%

  • Q4 2023 was decent for VMD. The forward guide was in line with my expectations. The business just keeps humming along with additional upside from M&A.

• OneSoft Solutions ($OSS.v) +18%

  • I have been impressed with the business performance of OSS. But I am still a bit shocked that the share price has held up this well. I have been conditioned to the market not really caring about OSS. I’m assuming that OSS has caught a bid with the AI optimism.

• Foraco International ($FAR.to) +41%

  • A strong quarter for FAR. Still quite cheap given the tailwinds for the business and additional deleveraging. I continue to hold my shares.

• Cipher Pharmaceuticals ($CPH.to) +51%

  • Yes I am a fungus baron. CPH has been in the spotlight this quarter. It sold off hard yesterday on no news that I could find. Given the MOB-015 opportunity relative to the market cap I still have a large position.

• Sangoma Technologies ($STC.to) +57%

  • A very hard bounce from being oversold. STC had some catchup to do relative to some other software stocks. The new CEO seems to be working toward consistent profitability with deleveraging. Still a cheap name (in my opinion) despite the run.

Overall performance was +21% vs 7-10% for whatever benchmark you choose. I’m happy with it, but I won’t put too much energy into judging performance based on one quarter.

Wishing all of you success as we move into Q2.

Thanks for reading.

Dean