Everyone loves a bargain. Be it at the grocery store, the local flea market, or at the neighborhood car dealership, people inherently understand the benefits of getting a great deal.
Yet despite this infatuation with bargain opportunities, not many investors realize that buying cheap stocks is possibly the best way to squeeze a whole lot of bang out of a hard-earned buck. As legendary investor Christopher H. Browne writes in The Little Book of Value Investing, we should always attempt to "buy stocks like steaks ... on sale."
Our penny-pinching process
So, with the help of our community over at Motley Fool CAPS, I'll once again try to find some cheap stocks for all of my kindred stingy spirits.
The approach is far from complicated: We'll run a simple screen for four- or five-star stocks that have enterprise value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) multiples of less than 10. We'll use EV/EBITDA rather than the more common price-to-earnings ratio so that we can account for differences in each company's capital structure.
Dive in the bargain bin
By running this screen, we'll zero in on statistically cheap stocks that, according to our CAPS community, have plenty of great reasons to trade at much higher levels.
So without further ado, let's dive right into this week's bargain bin:
|
Company
|
EV/EBITDA (Trailing 12 Months)
|
Industry
|
CAPS Rating (out of 5)
|
|
Exxon Mobil (:XOM)
|
5.9
|
Oil and Gas
|
****
|
|
Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ)
|
6.0
|
Telecom Services
|
*****
|
|
Accenture (NYSE:ACN)
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6.0
|
Management Services
|
*****
|
|
Burlington
Northern Santa Fe (NYSE:BNI)
|
7.9
|
Railroads
|
*****
|
|
Petro Brasileiro (NYSE:PBR)
|
9.1
|
Oil and Gas
|
*****
|
Data from Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Motley Fool CAPS.
As usual, our list isn't exactly brimming with the most exhilarating businesses. But that should be just fine with us. As sharp Fools know well, boring stories often translate into the market's biggest returns.
Long-term investment Verizon
Despite a price run of 25% over the past year and a market cap of $125 billion, many in our community believe the gargantuan Verizon Communications still offers a tasty bargain opportunity. More than 1,200 CAPS players have given the stock an outperform rating so far.
In addition to Verizon's already dominant position in the wireless sector, our community is bullish about its growth opportunities. Because of Verizon's heavy investment in its networks over the last several years, many Fools believe it stands in a far more attractive position than competitors Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S ) and Alltel (NYSE: AT ) going forward. The strong adoption numbers that Verizon has delivered for its FiOS product, a fiber-optic television service, do well to support that argument.
CAPS player butters83 writes:
Verizon: it's not just a wireless company anymore. Though its flagship is their wireless service, Verizon is expanding into telecom giant, offering internet, and television services as well. Verizon grows organically, rather than forced, rapid growth, which will lead to steady and sustained growth.
Accentuate the positives
Another stock in the bin that caught my attention is Motley Fool Inside Value pick Accenture. Despite being beaten down in price recently, the management-consulting firm has consistently kept a five-star rating. That, of course, suggests a possible turnaround opportunity.
Accenture shares are off nearly 20% in the past three months, mainly on fears that it would be hurt by the collapse of several financials. However, our Foolish community contends that Accenture remains a cash-rich, cash-generating consulting powerhouse with a diversified enough client base to weather the storm. In fact, Accenture recently announced a whopping $3 billion buyback, suggesting that management, too, sees a bargain.
CAPS All-Star gusjp accentuates the opportunity:
What a bargain! It has great contracts with big firms in the U.S. and around the world [and] great credibility in the sector. [It] has acquired another great firm, the profits [have] increased (and next year are expected more) and ACN announced [that it will] buy some stock back.
A Fool's final word
As always, what we say here isn't meant to be taken as a formal recommendation; we want only to generate some possible ideas that you might find worth further research. If you'd like to scour the bargain bin for yourself, read what our CAPS community thinks, or even chime in with your own opinions, then get in the game! It's totally free -- an offer that even the deepest of value investors should never pass up.
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