Aurelion Research's Jérémie Boyer on Canada's Defense Boom, the Uranium Squeeze and Overlooked Stock Picks

Jérémie Boyer, co-founder and lead research analyst at Montreal-based Aurelion Research, joined Phil Rosen on Full Signal to discuss Canada's defense spending push, the uranium squeeze, Latin America and stock picks from Calian Group to Nvidia.

His core takeaway is that some of the best opportunities sit in themes US investors tend to overlook, where a company's own turnaround gets an extra boost from a big spending tailwind.

Boyer said rising NATO defense spending is "something that is often overlooked," especially by US investors.

Canada's government expects more than C$500 billion in overall defense-related investment over the next decade as it works to rely less on the US.

He sees it as a boost for Canadian small- and mid-cap companies. The same trade has already played out in Europe, he said, "but in Canada, it's earlier."

Boyer's example is Calian Group, an Ottawa company that trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange as CGY. Aurelion bought in after a CEO change about a year ago, and Boyer said the stock is up 90% since.

Since the former CFO took over as CEO, he said, the company has stopped falling short of guidance, sold a division that was hurting earnings and free cash flow, and kept winning contracts. He called it "a small free cash flow machine."

Aurelion is still holding the stock, and while "it's not as early as it was one year ago," he said, "there could be a 40% upside easily in it."

Boyer, who said he's more focused on commodities, said a uranium supply shortage has already started. Because contracts and deliveries are arranged years in advance, he thinks the trade "will play probably earlier than we think."

His bigger pick is Cameco (CCJ), which he called the world's biggest uranium company that isn't state-owned. Many US names are still at the stage of "promises of we will produce," he said, so Aurelion is "playing it maybe more safely" with Cameco.

The other is Yellow Cake plc, a much smaller company that trades in London as YCA, with a market cap of about £1.3 billion. On both stocks, he said, "it's really early, much earlier than NATO."

Boyer said Latin American markets tend to move in a loop around elections, as market-friendly winners draw in US funds. In Peru, he said, the country's ETF ran "for like 100% in 2 years." Aurelion now has the most conviction in Brazil, which heads into a second-round vote on October 25 after a tight election in early October.

His pick there is Nu Holdings (NU), a fintech-style bank with a market cap of about $73 billion. It's a company "we think is really cheap right now," he said, adding that US investors are buying.

Aurelion doesn't own XP, a Brazilian financial firm whose stock is up about 45% in October, a run he tied to the election. "Maybe we missed the boat," Boyer said, though he added that if the election goes well, it "can still double."

Healthcare stocks were hit by fears that AI could do the work of drugmakers like Eli Lilly, Boyer said, but Aurelion concluded that worry was "overblown." That call paid off with Bruker (BRKR), which he said returned about 50% for Aurelion in a couple of months before it exited.

Aurelion's current pick in the theme is Globus Medical (GMED). Because the company makes surgical tools, he said, "it's not something that AI can do or replace," and it's "at an inflection point on their earnings."

Century Aluminum (CENX) "has not played out maybe as I wish it would," Boyer said, but he still has conviction and "could even double down."

The US producer is benefiting from tariffs, he said, running at 100% capacity and charging more thanks to the higher US price known as the Midwest Premium.

MDA Space (MDA), which makes satellites, also benefits from Canada's defense spending, Boyer said. The stock dipped recently on its backlog and hard-to-predict contracts, but he expects it to "eventually just rerate" and said it's "trading pretty cheaply right now."

SpaceX isn't really a client, he said, so there's no direct link to MDA's earnings, but if SpaceX gains momentum, "it should probably help MDA to get more eyes on it."

Boyer admitted that in the past he "hated the company" because of the feeling that he had missed its run. Aurelion doesn't own many AI companies, he said, but sees Nvidia as one that's "really here to stay."

Nvidia is always there or "at the center of the ecosystem," he said, and even if IPOs from Anthropic or OpenAI disappoint, he expects it to keep an edge in inference and robotics.

His message for investors hunting for hidden ideas when Nvidia is right in front of them was simple. "Don't be clever about it," he said.

On concerns that Nvidia relies on too few customers, Boyer said the company is working to diversify.

Rosen noted that "there's no company, it seems, in tech that doesn't have a deal with Nvidia in some way," which he said almost makes it seem "too big to fail." For more on the chip trade, see VanEck's Nick Frasse on why AI chips aren't repeating 1999.

Tune in to the full conversation with Jérémie Boyer on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

For more on stock picks, read Barron's Josh Schafer Shares 5 Stock Picks for 2027, and subscribe to the free Opening Bell Daily newsletter for a daily briefing on stocks, macro and Wall Street.

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This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Views and stock opinions are those of Jérémie Boyer and market figures are as of October 21, 2026.