TC Energy: Irreplaceable Assets at a Steep Discount? Yes, Please

Forget about the dividend and focus on the business

I’ve been in this investing game for a long time and I’m constantly amazed at how often price drives narrative.

Here’s what happens. A stock starts to fall, often for an unknown reason. Investors see the fall and demand an explanation, often creating one when nothing obvious comes to mind. The company’s issues are highlighted and debated, with the conclusion pretty predictably circling back to the same issues identified in the first place. Why else would the stock fall, genius?

Today’s social media world only makes this worse. When I started investing 20 years ago, there was no Twitter, no army of people who instantly analyzed a company’s tiniest move, or even many talking heads on business television. We had message boards, which at least had the advantage of people using slightly more than 280 characters, even if they were mostly filled with idiots. Don’t get me wrong — people still made knee-jerk decisions, but at least you were free to do your thinking without the influence of a million people shouting on whatever Twitter calls itself now.

A smart investor ignores all this. She wades into this mess with an open mind, taking an honest look at both the company’s strengths and weaknesses. She often finds a company with strong fundamentals and temporary, fixable problems, selling at a nicely discounted price. This is the time to buy, not when a sunny outlook demands a much higher price.

I firmly believe such a situation is playing out with TC Energy (TSX:TRP) today, marking the best buying opportunity in years for this Canadian blue chip. Even if shares are up nicely from Friday’s lows. Let’s take a closer look.

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