Tom Antony, founder and fund manager at Toronto-based Peregrine Investment Management Inc.The Globe and Mail
Money manager Tom Antony remains “cautiously optimistic” that the worst resulting from tariff-driven volatility is over for investors.
“The markets have come to terms with Trump’s tariff policies,” says Mr. Antony, founder and fund manager at Toronto-based Peregrine Investment Management Inc., who oversees about $250-million in assets.
While tariffs that are on the table will likely slow economic growth, Mr. Antony believes the U.S., where most of his investments are based, will avoid a recession.
“There’s a lot of caution right now, which makes me think markets are going to grind higher,” says Mr. Antony, whose focus is on growth stocks, particularly in the technology sector, as well as industrials, health care and financials.
Peregrine Fund, which focuses primarily on stocks in Canada and the U.S., has returned 5.28 per cent over the past 12 months. Its three-year annualized return is 9.75 per cent, while the five-year annualized return is 5.25 per cent. The annualized return since inception on June 1, 2004 is 12.47 per cent. The performance is based on total returns, net of fees, as of June 30.
His top five holdings in the fund include technology company SiTime Corp. SITM-Q, Canadian tech giant Constellation Software Inc. CSU-T, semiconductor company Astera Labs Inc. ALAB-Q, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. META-Q and vehicle auction company Copart Inc. CPRT-Q.
The two main themes he’s watching are artificial intelligence, given how it’s driving growth across sectors, and small caps, which he believes are undervalued and could benefit from the lower interest rates he predicts are ahead.
The Globe spoke with Mr. Antony recently about what he’s been buying and selling:
Name three stocks you own today and why.
Universal Display Corp. OLED-Q develops technology and intellectual property for the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) market. It has a monopoly on the luminescent material used in OLED displays that are found on iPhones, some higher-end TVs and curved monitors. OLED displays are superior to alternative technologies in terms of colour contrast, power consumption and form (they are foldable and curved).
The OLED display industry is growing, driven by its increasing use in various consumer electronics. The business has been volatile in the past due to macro factors and various product cycles. We believe Universal Display has significant growth opportunities over the next one to two years.
For instance, it’s in the process of commercializing phosphorescent blue, which would amount to going from selling two colours to three. A potential iPhone 17 supercycle this fall and into next year could be meaningful to OLED panel volumes. Additionally, if the inventory cycle finally restarts after being subdued for almost three years, restocking will be a healthy tailwind for consumer electronics and, in turn, panel unit volumes.
The business generates a substantial amount of cash, and the stock is relatively inexpensive. We accumulated stock in 2022 at an average price of around US$150 a share and bought more during the recent market downturn.
SiTime Corp. SITM-Q is currently our largest holding. The company has a monopoly on MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) timing chips, which are necessary components in any digital semiconductor system.
Historically, timing chips were made from quartz crystals that oscillate at a specific frequency when a charge is applied. Silicon timing chips, however, offer several advantages over quartz crystals: they can operate at higher frequencies, are programmable, have a smaller footprint and are more reliable under high temperature variations and extreme vibration. They’re superior in every aspect except for price; they’re considered a premium product.
As technology advances and becomes increasingly complex, more applications will require premium timing chips. SiTime’s customers include companies such as Apple Inc. AAPL-Q, consumer electronics companies and those involved in AI, which is a big growth driver for this company. We have owned SITM on many occasions. Our most recent position was accumulated in 2023 and 2024, opportunistically, at an average price of around US$100 a share. We also bought more during the recent market downturn.
Impinj Inc. PI-Q, a leading producer of RFID readers and tags, is a stock we’ve been buying over the past six months at various prices. It makes tiny chips that are embedded in retail merchandise. These chips help retailers with inventory management, enable a better self-checkout experience and deter theft. Impinj is the only company that produces both reader chips and endpoint integrated circuits, which, when used together, enable more advanced functionality.
Impinj is a good company, but every once in a while, it goes through an inventory correction that leads to an acute and violent reset in the stock. The recent correction was caused by UPS (a big RFID customer) deciding to decrease its volumes from Amazon.com Inc. With less-than-expected future volumes, the smart tag supply chain had to absorb inventory, including that of Impinj. The company is now recovering from this correction and is expected to benefit from new design wins in the grocery space next year.
Name a stock you sold recently.
e.l.f. Beauty Inc. ELF-N, the cosmetics company, is a stock we sold early in June after owning it for just a few weeks. It has been a disruptive, fast-growing company for many years, producing high-quality cosmetics at mass-market prices. It markets itself heavily through viral social media marketing.
The stock began to correct last year as growth started to slow, but was hit particularly hard this year due to tariffs on China, where most of its products are made. We bought the stock opportunistically in May when Trump started de-escalating his tariff rhetoric. We bought even more when Trump sent his negotiators to China. Trump did indeed lower the reciprocal tariffs from 145 per cent to 30 per cent, which was significantly lower than what the market had been expecting, and the stock jumped. Given the uncertainty surrounding U.S.-China trade, we decided to sell and take our 60-per-cent gain.
This interview has been edited and condensed.