Value Investor

To me this stock looks incredibly cheap. first of all it has beat earnings expectations for the last 8 quarters except for Q3 of 2007. Its growth rate, while expected to slow is still incredibly high especially for the price that it is selling at. its price to earnings ratio is 4.94 which is very good. most companies with slow/no growth have p/e ratios under 10 but this company has a p/e under 10 even though it can still be considered a growth stock. this is reflected in another metric called the peg ratio or price/earning/growth ratio. RIG has a peg ratio of .22 which is the lowest in its industry suggesting that it is a good value. The company also has a very solid balance sheet and operates in an industry that is unlikely to take a serious hit even if the world does slide into a recession. As long as oil stays roughly were it is now or goes higher then the demand for oil rigs should go up. Currently oil is priced for a pretty major worldwide recession and I do not see it getting nea

Here is an updated list of stocks trading below their net current asset value that you might want to take a look at. Given the recent panic this list is very large but many of them are probably not even worth looking at because they are very unstable companies but I will do my best to take the worst ones out of the list. Remember that these are recommendations on what to research not on what to buy. Also note that an overwhelming majority of these are small cap tech stocks that I don't really understand. I have decided that on my next list I will include a non tech section so you don't have to go through a bunch of stocks that you might not be interested in at all. vvtv asfi crv nuhc twmc msn cobr neng voxx tbac haup infs tues issi dram tiii wga tlgd trid axti mfi hdng plcc tecd (first glance I have no idea why this company is selling this cheaply) trci duck ttil prls mlr fep smrt sts atrm auth bhe trt wmar parl zap dswl gv usu

In recent weeks the market has crashed and if you have an account, it has probably been getting crushed. The markets are simply not functioning properly and with that in mind I propose various strategies of hedging your portfolio against further losses, assuming you have not run away from equities. 1. Every sector has a leader and every sector has a laggard. If you think you have found a company that is the absolute best in its industry then one of the best ways to hedge against this position is to short the worst company in that industry. for example, it has long been almost basic fact that Goldman Sachs was the leader of the investment banking industry. No one could really compare to Goldman Sachs. You could have bought GS and picked just about any other investment bank as your hedge by shorting it and you would have made a significant amount of money. This is despite the fact that GS is down over 50% from its high. 2. Sometimes there is no viable counterpart to a stock to use as a s

After the most recent declines many stocks have been added to the list of NCAV stocks. This list has been pruned down but you can see http://www.grahaminvestor.com/screens/grahams_result for the entire list. BZH HDL MSN WCI TAIT TWMC CRC CRV FORD HOV PMRY ISSI

Here is a list of stocks that are currently trading under NCAV according to http://www.grahaminvestor.com/screens/grahams_result . I've taken out the companies that do not have sufficient financial strength to be considered good investments. See NCAV for more information on the NVAC strategy. These are not necessarily recommendations but instead ideas for you to explore in greater detail. BZH HDL MSN- questionable financial strength but worth looking at WCI TWMC OHB- be careful with this one FORD CRV FINL ZAP-bad earnings history though

Over 50 years ago Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, began to utilized a measurement of a companies worth known as net current asset value. NCAV is value investing at its purest. You are probably familiar with the measurement known as book value which is total asset minus total liabilities. But NCAV is slightly different. NCAV equals the companies current assets minus its total liabilities. For example: OHB (Orleans Homebuilders) has the following items entered on its Q2 financial statements: Current Assets = 3463.34 Total Liabilities = 2555.12 Total Common Shares Outstanding = 39.21 So the NCAV of OHB is 3463.34-2555.12 = 908.22 This number can then be converted into the more useful NCAV per share by dividing the NCAV by total common shares outstanding. Therefore, the NCAV per share is 908.22 / 39.21 = 23.16. At this point the NCAV per share could be compared to the market value of the shares to determine if the stock is trading at a fair value. You might be wondering wh

Now that you know what a stock is and a little bit about the different types of stocks you may be wondering how you can get started buying stocks. In order to buy stocks you have to set up an account with a brokerage. Brokerage accounts are very similar to your everyday bank account except they allow you to buy and sell stocks. In exchange for this capability you have to pay a fee, or commission, for each transaction made. Depending on your account provider this commission could be anywhere from $5 to $50 but for the majority of small investors $10 per trade is the most common. One discount broker that I would highly recommend is ShareBuilder .

You may be surprised to hear that there is more than one type of stock that a company might issue. Common Stock Common stocks are the most common (naturally) type of stock investment. A common stock is a stock that gives it's owner certain voting rights in the company. Common stocks still have a claim to the company's assets and earnings as described in my last post, but the most common way to make money off of common stocks is to buy the stock at a lower price and sell it to someone else at a higher price. Common stocks have the highest average annual return out of all types of investments, but they also have the highest risk. Because common stock holders have less of a claim to the company's assets than bondholders and preferred stock holders if a company goes into bankruptcy common stock holders will often receive little or no money. Preferred Stock Preferred stocks are similar to common stocks but most of the time don't carry any voting rights. One advantage that pr

When a private company decides that it needs more capital for whatever reason, it may decide that the best way to raise this capital is through selling stock. This process of going public and selling shares is called an IPO or initial public offering. When an investor buys shares of stock that are being sold in an IPO the money that he spends buying the shares goes directly to the company which then can use it to fuel growth. In return for this capital contribution the investor is given partial ownership of the company. If a company issues 10,000 shares of stock in its IPO and you buy 1,000 shares of it, then you have a 10% ownership in the corporation. As an owner you are entitled to part of the corporation’s earnings, which are usually paid out by the company to its shareholders through dividends. Typically a company will only pay a portion of the earnings as dividends and then reinvests the rest to help the company grow. Most of the time you do not buy stock directly from the compan

While the retail industry as a whole has been suffering as a result of decreased consumer spending Saks has pulled off quite a turnaround. The decrease of the dollar against most other major currencies has been a major factor in this turnaround. A weaker dollar allows wealthy foreigners to come to the US and shop at our stores at a significant discount. The result is 11.7 percent same-store sales growth for 2007. There is also the possibility of a buyout of Saks by Baugur Group which is an international investment company which focuses on retail investments. Most calculations put the potential bid at about $23 dollars per share. Another important factor affecting the price of this stock is heavy short interest. In other words a lot of people are betting that this stock will go down. This is a good thing because if the price of SKS reaches a certain level either by the buyout or by continuing its current success these people who are currently short will cover their short. The result is