Portfolio management
Run at your own pace
The object of today’s post is to give readers a practical view of how a successful concentrated stock portfolio can be constructed and managed.
I’ve always tracked performance. I firmly believe that if you don’t track your performance, you can’t manage your portfolio.
But just looking at performance is useless unless to can examine the portfolio that produced the performance. That said, in this post there are no recommendations for specific stocks. If you invest in any stocks mentioned and things don’t go well, don’t blame me. You are on your own.
Retirement savings investment performance
In 2025 our family’s retirement savings yielded a total return of 16.71%. This included the return on stocks, bonds and a cash savings account in toto combined. I don’t measure the performance of our stocks separately. This compares with the total return on the S&P 500 of 17.88% and the total return of 31.68% on the S&P/TSX COMPOSITE INDEX (our main Canadian index)
This brings the 53 year (since January 1, 1973) total compounded return on our retirement savings to 13.35%, compared with the total compounded return, with dividends reinvested, over the same period on the S&P 500 of 10.93%. The average CPI inflation rate in the US over this period was 3.88%
As an aside, the Toronto stock exchange S&P/TSX Composite Index had a gangbuster year, largely because of the heavy weighting of gold and other precious metals stocks and Canadian banks. The Gold and other precious metals were reportedly responsible for approximately 30% of the entire S&P/TSX Composite Index’s return for the year. The financials sector, which has a significant weight in the index (around 33%), rose by approximately 40% in 2025. I don’t invest in either of these sectors.
The S&P/TSX COMPOSITE INDEX has underperformed the S&P 500 for decades. For example, in the last 20 years the compound total return of the Toronto index has been 10.95% compared to 14.81 for the U.S. index. I’m happy to use the S&P 500 as my benchmark.
What you see is all there is
What is set out below describes our entire financial assets. Our asset allocation has not changed in twenty-four years. It has been 100% allocated to common stocks. Prior to that, that is prior to the fall of 2002, we had been 100% in two-year government bonds for five years.
There has been little turnover in the portfolio. Interested readers can check out previous years’ posts on this subject by clicking portfolio in the tags index.
I don’t propose to give any significant explanation around any of the holdings.
Learning to fish
An investor who simply copies what I or any other investor is doing is making a big mistake. I do not copy what even Warren Buffett or any other high-profile investor is doing. I have my own objectives and approach. Buffett would not be able to invest in many of the companies I invest in because they are too small for Berkshire Hathaway and would entail a liquidity risk. As well, I might decide tomorrow to sell any of our family’s holdings because I feel the company is no longer a superb enterprise.
Let me be even clearer. The whole purpose of my blog is to exchange ideas about investing. We all are aware of the old adage: “Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime.” The blog has never been about passing on tips or advice about individual stocks to invest in. This blog is only about learning how to invest.
Portfolio concept at a glance
Many would describe my approach to investing as value investing. I would simply call it investing. I say that for two reasons.
First, the term value investing is redundant. In discussing the two customary approaches to investing, ‘value’ and ‘growth’, Buffett confesses to earlier fuzzy thinking and says:
“In our opinion, the two approaches are joined at the hip: Growth is always a component in the calculation of value, constituting a variable whose importance can range from negligible to enormous and whose impact can be negative as well as positive. In addition, we think the very term ‘value investing’ is redundant. What is ‘investing’ if it is not the act of seeking value at least sufficient to justify the amount paid?” (Buffett, The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Cunningham 1998) p85. (Emphasis Added)
Secondly, and following from the first, in looking at our family’s portfolio, there is no way to know how it was constructed. The companies in the portfolio all have great prospects for growth. Each stock in this well-balanced diversified but concentrated portfolio will have been purchased for the long term. Only a handful will have been purchased in the last two or three years. Those recent purchases will have been bought at bargain prices; that is, at prices well below intrinsic value. This follows Ben Graham and Warren Buffett’s approach of buying with a Margin of Safety. Today, many of the stocks in the portfolio will be fully priced and some may be priced well over intrinsic value. That is because the prices of those stocks will have gone up since they were purchased. I am in no hurry to sell any of them regardless of how the market prices them in relation to intrinsic value. And some may be currently priced below fair value.
Asset mix breakdown
The mix shows roughly 10% more Canadian stocks than U.S. A year ago, this mix was reversed. In early 2025 we had some 66% in U.S. stocks that had built up by the superior performance of U.S. stocks. I rebalanced.
Portfolio Holdings
Our U.S. Holdings
Company % of total holdings
AMZN NASDAQ Amazon.com Inc 9.93%
The company’s businesses include Amazon Store; Delivery & Logistics; Devices and Services; Amazon Web Services; and Entertainment. The directors and executive officers have their substantial net worth of billions of dollars invested alongside other shareholders. Market cap $2.6T USD; position initiated in spring of 2020 during Covid selloff.
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CHRW NASDAQ CH Robinson Worldwide Inc 0%
C.H. Robinson is one of the world’s largest logistics platforms. It provides freight transportation and logistics, outsource solutions, produce sourcing, and information services to 105,000 customers through a network of offices in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. It provides its customers access to 73,000 transportation providers worldwide, including contract motor carriers, railroads, air freight carriers, and ocean carriers. The directors and executive officers have together some $250 M USD in common shares. Market cap $10.5B USD; have held the shares for more than five years.
This position was sold in its entirety in late 2025 as the stock became wildly overpriced relative to fair value.
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CRM NYSE Salesforce Inc 9.80%
Salesforce is the world’s #1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform. It provides cloud-based CRM applications for sales, service and marketing. Agentforce is a new AI layer of the Salesforce platform that enables companies to build and deploy AI agents that can respond to inputs, make decisions and take action autonomously across business functions. The directors and executive officers as a group hold some $10 B USD in common shares. Market cap $243B USD; have held the shares for more than five years.
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RSP NYSE Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight S&P 500 ETF 0.40%
As with other small holdings of ETFs in the portfolio, this ETF is a placeholder for my wife in the event I predecease her. If I die, she will sell all our stocks and put the money into ETFs. Since we each have three different investment accounts, two registered and one ordinary investment, she will need to know what goes where. U.S. holdings must go in the registered account that benefits from a U.S./Canada tax treaty with no tax withholding on dividends. The other registered account is the wrong one for U.S. securities as it is subject to withholding taxes with no credit in Canada. The placeholding is also the template used by our children. Switched from VOO the S&P 500 cap weighted ETF recently. See my post: Owning an equal part of every business in town. Future plan to split 50/50 between RSP and VOO.
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SCHW NYSE Charles Schwab Corp 9.28%
The Charles Schwab Corporation is a leading investment services firm with $10.10 trillion in client assets, 36.5 million active brokerage accounts, The founder is chair of the board although in his mid-80s with shareholdings worth some $10B USD. The current CEO has run the company for many years and his equity ownership is worth approximately $175M USD; Market cap of $178 B; have held the shares for more than five years.
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ZBH NYSE Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc 8.68%
Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. is a global medical technology company. The Company designs, manufactures and markets orthopedic reconstructive products; sports medicine, biologics, extremities and trauma products; craniomaxillofacial and thoracic (CMFT) products; surgical products; and a suite of integrated digital and robotic technologies that leverage data, data analytics and artificial intelligence. Zimmer holds the leading share of the reconstructive market in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Roughly 70% of total revenue is derived from sales of large joints, another quarter comes from extremities, trauma, and related surgical products. Market cap of $18.4 B: Initiated position in the spring of 2022.
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VEEV NYSE Veeva Systems Inc 9.01%
Veeva Systems Inc. is a provider of cloud solutions for the global life sciences industry. It offers span cloud software, data, and business consulting and is designed to meet the needs of its customers and the strategic business functions from research and development (R&D) through commercialization. Its four product categories include Veeva Development Cloud, Veeva Quality Cloud, Veeva Commercial Cloud, and Veeva Data Cloud. Veeva Development Cloud includes application suites for the clinical, regulatory, and safety functions of life sciences companies, all built on its Veeva Vault platform. Veeva Quality Cloud unifies applications, processes, and partners across content management, training, quality management, assurance, and control lab solutions on the Veeva Vault platform. Veeva Commercial Cloud is a product category comprised of software and analytics solutions. Veeva Data Cloud is a data platform comprised of connected reference data, deep data, and transaction data. Market Cap is $39.5 B. Insiders own 13,464,820 shares or 8.28% of the company’s equity. Initiated position in summer of 2024.
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Our Canadian Holdings
Company % of total holdings
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CCL.B TSX CCL Industries Inc 4.98%
CCL is the world’s largest converter of pressure sensitive and specialty extruded film materials. It employs more than 22,000 people operating over 190 production facilities in 40 countries with corporate offices in Toronto, Canada. The founding family controls the company. Current President and CEO is not a family member. He has steered the company through solid growth over the last decade and holds almost $100 million of common shares and units. Market cap $14.3B CAD; have held for more than 10 years.
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CIGI TSX Colliers International Group Inc. 9.12%
Colliers is a Canadian global real estate services and investment management company. It operates in 67 countries around the world. It is controlled by its founder who is the current CEO whose ownership stake is worth some $245 M USD. It has an asset light business model with high owner earnings. Market cap: $7.4B USD; initiated holding in spring of 2020 during Covid selloff.
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DSG TSX Descartes Systems Group Inc 6.09%
The Descartes Systems Group Inc. is focused on logistics and supply chain management business processes. It provides on-demand, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions focused on improving the productivity, security and sustainability of logistics-intensive businesses. It allows customers to use its modular, SaaS solutions to route, track and help improve the safety, compliance of delivery resources; plan, allocate and execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access global trade data; file customs and security documents for imports and exports; and complete other logistics processes by participating in the multimodal logistics community. Its solutions include cloud-based and consist of B2B service connectivity and messaging, broker and forwarder enterprise systems, global trade intelligence, regulatory compliance, e-commerce shipping, transportation management and routing. It also provides customs declaration software for logistics services providers and shippers. Market cap: $10.5B CAD. No massive common stock holdings by management or directors. Initiated in fall of 2025.
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ONEX TSX Onex Corp 0%
Onex Corporation invests and manages capital on behalf of its shareholders and clients across the globe. Its segments include Investing and Asset management. Investing segment and Asset management. Its Investing segment is engaged in the activity of investing its capital. Its Asset management segment comprises the asset management activities provided by the Company to support its private equity and credit strategies, as well as its corporate functions. It has two primary businesses: Private Equity and Credit. In Private Equity, it raises funds from third-party investors and invests them, along with its own investing capital, through the funds of its private equity platforms: Onex Partners and ONCAP. Similarly, in Credit, it raises and invests capital across several private credits, liquid credit and public equity strategies. Its investors include a range of global clients, including public and private pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and high-net-worth individuals. As of December 31, 2020, Onex had approximately CAD $48 billion of assets under management. Primarily it engages in private equity investing. It is run by the founder and a team that collectively have some $2 B CAD personally invested in the common shares of the company. Market cap $6.4 B CAD; have held for more than 10 years. Eliminated position in fall 2025 on disappointment with company.
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TIH TSX Toromont Industries Ltd 9.18%
Toromont Industries Ltd. sells, rents, and services Caterpillar construction equipment and power systems in the provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Labrador and Nunavut, Canada. The Company also manufactures and distributes refrigeration and process systems throughout North America. The board chair holds about $140 M of common shares and the CEO about $15 M. Market cap $13.9B CAD; have held for more than 20 years.
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XIU TSX iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF 0.40%
See comments under RSP NYSE Invesco S&P 500® Equal Weight S&P 500 ETF for explanation
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WXM TSX CI Morningstar Canada Momentum Index ETF Common 0.40%
See comments under RSP NYSE Invesco S&P 500® Equal Weight S&P 500 ETF for explanation
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DOO TSX BRP Inc Stock 4.70%
BRP Inc. is a Canada-based company that specializes in powersports products, propulsion systems and boats. Its segments include Powersports and Marine. Powersports segment comprises Year-Round Products (all-terrain vehicles, side-by-side vehicles and three-wheeled vehicles), Seasonal Products (snowmobiles, personal watercraft and pontoons) and Powersports PA&A and OEM Engines (parts, accessories and apparel (PA&A), engines for karts and recreational aircraft, Pinion gearboxes and other services). Marine segment consists of boats, pontoons, jet boat and outboard engines and related PA&A and other services. Its brands include Ski-Doo and Lynx snowmobiles, Sea-Doo watercraft and pontoons, Can-Am on and off-road vehicles, Alumacraft and Quintrex boats, Manitou pontoons and Rotax marine propulsion systems and Rotax engines for karts and recreational aircraft. It is developing electric models for its existing product lines and exploring new low voltage and human assisted product categories. Market cap $7.3B CAD. Beaudier Inc., a private holding company based in Montreal, owns 13,000,000 common shares or 17.8% of the company worth some CAD$583.3M. Bought April 2025 at a very attractive price thanks to Donald Trump causing tumult in the stock market.
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SHOP TSX Shopify Inc 7.26%
Shopify Inc. (Shopify) is a Canada-based global commerce company. The Company provides essential Internet infrastructure for commerce, offering tools to start, grow, market and manage a retail business of any size. It provides platforms and services that are engineered and delivers a shopping experience for consumers online, in store and everywhere in between. Its software enables merchants to run their business across all of their sales channels, including Web and mobile storefronts, physical retail locations, social media storefronts, and marketplaces. The Company’s Shopify platform provides merchants with a single view of their business across all of their sales channels and enables them to manage products and inventory, process orders and payments, fulfill and ship orders, build customer relationships, source products, leverage analytics and reporting, and access financing, all from one integrated back office. The Shopify’s platform operates across 175 countries. Market cap CAD $298.2 B. Tobias Lütke, the founder of the company, owns 79,550,132 shares worth some US$10B, which is roughly 6.14% of the outstanding common shares. Bought April 2025 at a very attractive price thanks to Donald Trump causing tumult on the stock market.
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TOY TSX Spin Master Corp 4.89%
Spin Master Corp. is a children’s entertainment company creating exceptional play experiences through a diverse portfolio of innovative toys, entertainment franchises and digital games. It has 28 offices globally. It distributes products in more than 100 countries. The three founders run the company and have about $1.5 B CAD in common share ownership. Market cap $ 2.1B CAD; initiated the position in the spring of 2020 during Covid selloff.
Conclusion
So, there it is. The portfolio is run in accordance with the investment principles discussed in my blog posts. I have never had an investment advisor. The research I use is as provided by my discount broker, i.e., no research edge. I have no special access to information, i.e., no information edge. To succeed in investing, ‘do it yourself’ (DIY) investors need to study, practice and work at it. The edge we have is a behavioral edge. We are at no disadvantage to the ‘pros’. In fact, it may be easier because DIY investors have no client and career pressures.
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