Jesse Gamble, senior vice-president and portfolio manager at Toronto-based Donville Kent Asset Management Inc. Illustration by Joel KimmelThe Globe and Mail
Money manager Jesse Gamble doesn’t invest in a particular sector, such as artificial intelligence, or based on a company’s size, such as large- or small-caps.
Instead, the senior vice-president and portfolio manager at Toronto-based Donville Kent Asset Management Inc. says his team looks for “compounders,” which he describes as companies that can reinvest capital at high rates of return over longer periods.
“We’re just trying to find the best companies we can based on factors such as return on invested capital, earnings growth and valuation,” says Mr. Gamble, who oversees about $75-million in assets alongside Donville Kent Asset Management president and chief executive officer Jason Donville.
In the current market, their strategy favours small- and mid-cap stocks, given what they see as more attractive valuations than for many large-caps.
“We’d rather own something with much higher earnings growth at half or a third of the valuation,” he says.
The portfolio, which today holds 21 companies across North America, includes top holdings such as Zedcor Inc. ZDC-X, VitalHub Corp. VHI-T, Propel Holding Inc. PRL-T, Enterprise Group Inc. E-T, Cipher Pharmaceuticals Inc. CPH-T and BluMetric Environmental Inc. BLM-X.
The portfolio fell 16.8 per cent in 2025 after returning 103 per cent in 2024. The negative performance last year, while the S&P/TSX Composite Index returned almost 30 per cent, was due to a drop in many Canadian growth stocks it held, while gold and silver (which are not held) outperformed.
“That’s why we see such an opportunity in 2026, because many of these companies sold off even though they’re fundamentally performing well,” Mr. Gamble says.
The portfolio’s three-year annualized return is 26.2 per cent and its average annualized return since inception in October, 2008, is 11.4 per cent.
The Globe spoke with Mr. Gamble about three stocks he’s been adding to recently and one he sold:
Name three stocks you own today and why.
Zedcor, the Calgary-based mobile surveillance and live monitoring security company, is a stock we first bought in January, 2023, at 63 cents a share. We bought more of the stock early last week after it fell by as much as 30 per cent on news that Amazon.com Inc.’s AMZN-Q Ring product was entering the same mobility security trailer market [monitoring locations such as construction sites or live events without permanent infrastructure].
The stock has since bounced back after investors learned more about the nuances between the two products. Zedcor’s is more advanced. It’s a security company that provides the towers, sets them up, and then does the monitoring, too. It’s more of a security-as-a-service company, and it does it better than anyone else.
Blue Ant Media Corp. BAMI-T, the Toronto-based streaming, production studio and advertising business, is a stock we bought when it first went public in August, 2025, at $6.68 a share, and we have continued to buy it.
The company has been around since 2011 and has evolved into a global content owner and distributor. In October of last year, it bought streaming company MagellanTV LLC, and in November, it acquired production and distribution company Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc.
We think this stock is underfollowed and undervalued. It’s not very liquid, in part because many shares are locked up temporarily due to the various acquisitions. Once there’s more liquidity and a better understanding of the stock, we think it will become a much bigger company.
VitalHub, the Toronto-based health care software company, is a stock we bought in May, 2019, at $1.60 a share. We’ve been adding to the stock on the recent pullback.
There’s been a general decline in software-as-a-service stocks because of the growth in AI. Investors aren’t as discerning about who the winners and losers will be. We think there’s still significant growth in the health care industry that will benefit VitalHub. To us, the stock is cheap, with strong returns on invested capital, significant organic growth and ample dry powder for mergers and acquisitions.
Name a stock you sold recently.
Constellation Software Inc. CSU-T is a stock we sold on Sept. 25 last year, the day the company announced that its founder and chief executive officer, Mark Leonard, was stepping down effective immediately [for unspecified health reasons]. Our first investment in Constellation was on Oct. 21, 2008, at $22.99 a share. It’s been one of Canada’s best-performing stocks.
We’ve seen the change-in-leadership story before, in which a founder or CEO retires, and usually the company becomes more conservative. There was a certain halo effect with Mark Leonard for employees wanting to work there and companies wanting to sell to him.
We still think shareholders will make money by owning the stock, but we think the years of consistent, 20-per-cent returns are probably behind them. That said, we might go back into the stock if we’re proven wrong, but we felt there were better opportunities for growth.
This interview has been edited and condensed.