RE:RE:Round numbersYes they're cheap but you have to bear a few things in mind. First, with the strong performance of the stock on Friday vs. the big drops in the publicly-traded portfolio holdings (plus the $29 million or so in leverage) the discount to NAV per share has suddenly dropped meaningfully below the 50% where it has been sitting for a long time. (Modest offset from the dip in the loonie.)
This kind of thing has happened before. Some newbie sees the huge discount to NAV per share and comes rushing in only to realize that Caldwell family control means Urbana will never get gobbled up and then liquidated at NAV per share (unless Tom wishes it) . . . and then eventually the newbie loses interest and moves on.
Don't get me wrong. I love the Urbana story. But when I recommend it to friends I warn them that, regardless of the NAV discount, it will by and large go up and down with the market. There are other Canadian names that I see having real potential to go up significantly even if the market goes down, say, 20%. Top of my current list FWIW is Quarterhill.
But if the market goes down 20% then for sure Urbana will go down also. Indeed, history seems to show that if the market goes down (and Urbana with it) the discount to NAV per share will actually increase. It's not really "fair" (whatever that means in this context) but that is what tends to happen.
So, yes, Urbana is cheap but it certainly is neither riskless nor likely to go up in a down market.