PI tech analyst Pardeep Sangha on pace for remarkable 2013

He’s the only technology analyst based in Vancouver, the only one in Western Canada, for that matter.

But PI analyst Pardeep Sangha isn’t letting his distance from Bay Street hamper his ability to outpace his peers there. In 2013, Sangha’s returns have been downright gaudy.

Sangha has combined remarkable consistency with a couple upper-deck home runs so far this year. At press time, in fact, he didn’t have a single stock in his coverage universe in the red. His top performer, Points International (Points International Stock Quote, Chart, News: TSX:PTS), doesn’t get a lot of coverage on Bay Street, but barely halfway through the year Sangha has ridden it to a 114% gain.

Points, which manages the back end of loyalty currencies, frequent flyer miles, hotel points, retailer rewards and credit card points, would do much better in 2013, predicted Sangha earlier this year, because the company’s pipeline of deals was rapidly expanding late last year. In March, he noted that partnerships such as the one the company signed with Southwest Airlines for its Rapid Rewards Loyalty Membership program would be worth “tens of millions of dollars annually once fully implemented in mid-2013.”

Another triple digit gainer for Sangha has been Solium Capital (Solium Capital Stock Quote, Chart, News: TSX:SUM). Solium, which helps company’s sort out the tangle that is stock-based compensation, was undervalued in January he said, and would benefit from the exit of rival and peer Computershare as a shareholder. Solium exactly doubled, from $2.65 on December 31st of last year to $5.30 this past Friday. Those are the date parameters from which we gathered all our data, with one exception listed below.

One winner Sangha might have an edge on his against his Toronto-base rivals with is Avigilon (Avigilon Stock Quote, Chart, News: TSX:AVO), whose Yaletown office is located blocks from Sangha’s own in downtown Vancouver. After a tremendous 2012, Sangha predicted that Avigilon’s growth was part of a much longer-term trend. He is forecasting 50% growth for Avigilon in fiscal 2013 and 40% growth in fiscal 2014. Avigilon, meanwhile, is up 47.8% year-to-date.

Other winners for Sangha include, OpenText (OpenText Stock Quote, Chart, News: TSX:OTC), Descartes Systems Group (Descartes Systems Group Stock Quote, Chart, News: TSX:DSG), and AgJuntion (AgJuntion Stock Quote, Chart, News: TSX:AJX), which was formerly known as Hemisphere GPS.

His only loser, incidentally, was Tio Networks (Tio Networks Stock Quote, Chart, News: TSXV:TNC) which turned positive for the year at press time.

Sangha, who has a B.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from the University of British Columbia, has been covering tech stocks for PI since 2007. He previously spent four years at Telus in engineering and operations roles, served on the board of the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and spent several years with venture capital firm Ventures West.