Fascinating note from Forbes on the underperformance of Joel Greenblatt’s mutual funds that implement the Magic Formula: [I]nstead of trying to paint Gotham’s year-to-date returns as indicative of any obvious flaw in strategy, it’s likely a far stronger data point to use as a read on the overall market. Its … Read More
A Lesson in Portfolio Construction: “One Good Icahn Energy Bet Undoes Several Years of Bad Calls” – Bloomberg @Business
Oil’s crash would have been every bit as cruel to Carl Icahn as it was to other investors, except the billionaire had a very important ace in the hole: a little-known refiner and fertilizer maker based in Sugar Land, Texas. Icahn’s 2012 purchase of CVR Energy Inc. has returned more than … Read More
Perion Network Ltd. ($PERI): Cheap, cash rich, and generating cash
Big changes in the composition of the screeners this week, giving us lots of exciting new stocks to dig into. While the indexes only declined a few points, under the surface the waters are roiling, with big declines from many stocks. Earnings season has also shaken up the fundamental picture. AU … Read More
The Icahn Strategy
From Icahn Enterprises L.P. December 2013 Investor Presentation: Across all of our businesses, our success is based on a simple formula: we seek to find undervalued companies in the Graham & Dodd tradition, a methodology for valuing stocks that primarily looks for deeply depressed prices. However, while the typical Graham … Read More
Valero Energy Corporation ($VLO): Cheap, safe and running
Valero Energy Corporation ($VLO), which at one point was the cheapest stock in the Large Cap 1000 Screener and the All Investable Screener, is having a blockbuster year, up 33 percent to date (I’ve been pitching it since September last year, here with Jeff Macke on Yahoo Finance). Even so, … Read More
Movado Group, Inc. ($MOV): Cheap, safe and buying back stock
It’s no secret why Movado Group, Inc. ($MOV) is in the bargain bin. Investors fear that the beast of 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino–Apple, Inc.–has done for watches what it did for Walkmans (the iPod), desktop PCs (the iMac), music (iTunes), laptops (the Macbook), and cell phones (the iPhone), not to … Read More
AVX Corporation ($AVX): Cheap, safe, dividend payer at an historically high yield
AVX Corporation (NYSE:AVX) is another unusually cheap stock in the All Investable Screener. At $13.36, it has a market capitalization of $2.2 billion, and with net cash of $844 million, an enterprise value of $1.4 billion. It generated operating earnings over the last twelve months $212 million, putting it on … Read More
Newpark Resources Inc. ($NR): Possible takeover candidate
Newpark Resources Inc. ($NR) has been beaten up along with the rest of the oil and gas service industry, and it’s starting to look decidedly cheap. At its $7.21 close yesterday, it has a market capitalization of ~$606 million. It carries net debt of $91 million, putting it on an … Read More
Changes to the Screeners’ Output
I’ve retooled the screeners to add some new information at the request of some users. In addition to the acquirer’s multiple and its components–enterprise value and operating earnings–, and descriptive data–share price, symbol, name, industry, and market capitalization–the screener now shows several additional fundamental measures. Those measures include each … Read More
Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. ($UEPS): Cheap, and fundamentally strong
Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:UEPS) has been running hard in 2015, up 69 percent since the start of the year, and up 13 percent since I wrote about it on June 10. It’s getting close to exiting the All Investable Screener, but it remains cheap on any number of metrics. With … Read More
Last chance to take advantage of extended offer: One month trial of The Acquirer’s Multiple for 9 bucks (save $40)
I’ve had a few requests to extend this weekend’s special offer, so I’m going to keep it going to 5pmPDT this afternoon. Click here to subscribe to the Acquirer’s Multiple and pay only 9 bucks for the first month (usually $49). In addition to the free Large Cap 1000 screen, … Read More
Alaska Air Group ($ALK) is well run and cheap
Lots of value investors find their own personal Waterloo in airline stocks (Buffett famously dumps money in the sector every decade or so). That might make the industry sound like a bad bet. Regardless, when I kick airlines out of my backtests, they tend to underperform, so I keep the industry … Read More
Subscribe to The Acquirer’s Multiple and pay only 9 bones for the first month (Expires midnight tonight)
For this weekend only, click here to subscribe to the Acquirer’s Multiple and pay only 9 for the first month (usually $49). In addition to the free Large Cap 1000 screen, get exclusive access to The All Investable Screener (see the backtest) The Small and Micro Cap Screener (see the backtest) Commentary … Read More
What happens to value in sideways markets: Shiller PE and expected returns using Hussman’s method
Robert Shiller’s cyclically adjusted price earnings (CAPE) ratio takes a 10-year inflation-adjusted average of the S&P500’s earnings to arrive at a price/earnings metric smoothed for the business cycle. It’s useful because earnings tend to be volatile and mean reverting. For example, the single-year PE metric peaked in 2009 at 125, indicating … Read More
Special offer this weekend only: One month trial of The Acquirer’s Multiple for 9 bucks (Save $40)
For this weekend only, click here to subscribe to the Acquirer’s Multiple and pay only 9 for the first month (usually $49). In addition to the free Large Cap 1000 screen, get exclusive access to The All Investable Screener (see the backtest) The Small and Micro Cap Screener (see the backtest) Commentary … Read More
RPX Corp: Unusually cheap stock with an unusual business model
RPX Corp is an unusually cheap stock with an unusual business model. With an $888 million market cap, and $376 million in net cash, RPXC has an enterprise value of $512 million, against which it has earned $76 million in operating income over the last twelve months, giving it an … Read More
NevSun Resources ($NSU): Arguably the best base metals miner in the world.
Nevsun Resources (USA) has taken a beating recently, down 17 percent from its June high of $4.26. It remains the cheapest stock in the All Investable universe. Chief Development Officer Scott Trebilcock gives a presentation on behalf of Nevsun Resources at the Metals Investor Forum in Vancouver BC. In the … Read More
S&P500 enterprise multiple 1990 to date
I like to check in occasionally to see where the S&P500’s average enterprise multiple stands. Right now it’s trading on just over 12x, where it’s been since the start of the year. It’s rarely been this expensive. Indeed, the average for the full period is 10.4, and it’s only exceeded this level … Read More
CNBC’s 9 stocks could be takeover targets
CNBC recently screened for small- and mid-cap companies that could attract takeover offers on the basis of valuation. CNBC examined free cash flow yield, enterprise multiple, and total debt as a percentage of equity to find the following nine names emerged: Symbol Company Industry EV/EBITDA FCF Yield Debt % NPK National … Read More
Telecom Argentina S.A. ($TEO): Undervalued Telco with a Strong Balance Sheet
Telecom Argentina S.A. ($TEO) popped into the Large Cap 1000 screener this week at the top position. With a $3.5 billion market cap, virtually no net debt, and $653 million in operating earnings last year, the company trades on an acquirer’s multiple of just 5.3x. It yields 4 percent and … Read More