I am always looking for a good deal, whether that means buying an extra box of Golden Grahams when they're on sale or pouncing on undervalued stocks. The idea that anybody would sell a stock for less than its worth may seem silly, but legendary value investor Ben Graham (no relation to the cereal) tells us, by way of allegory, how we can look out for these situations.
In The Intelligent Investor, Graham introduces readers to a wacky chap named Mr. Market. Mr. Market's game is to pay you house calls on a daily basis to offer to sell you interests in businesses he owns or to buy from you interests in businesses you own. Sometimes Mr. Market will show up at your door very excited and offer you premium prices for your holdings, while at other times he'll be inconsolably depressed about the future and will offer to sell you what he has for as low as pennies on the dollar.
To find some of the stocks that Mr. Market is depressed about, I've turned once again to The Motley Fool's CAPS investor community. Each of the companies below had been given a five-star rating (the highest) by our community of investors just 30 days ago:
|
Stock
|
30-Day Return
|
1-Year Return
|
Current CAPS Rating
(out of 5)
|
|
Huron Consulting (Nasdaq: HURN )
|
(70.4%)
|
(74.9%)
|
**
|
|
CapitalSource (NYSE: CSE )
|
(11.2%)
|
(62.3%)
|
*****
|
|
Landec (Nasdaq: LNDC )
|
(10.4%)
|
(22.3%)
|
*****
|
|
Tongjitang Chinese Medicines
|
(8.3%)
|
(24.2%)
|
*****
|
|
JAKKS Pacific
|
(8.2%)
|
(47.2%)
|
*****
|
|
GigaMedia (Nasdaq: GIGM )
|
(7.8%)
|
(54.6%)
|
*****
|
|
United Breweries (NYSE: CCU )
|
(7.2%)
|
11.6%
|
*****
|
Data from Motley Fool CAPS as of Aug. 4, 2009.
As the table shows, most of these stocks are all still very well-regarded by the CAPS community despite their underperformance over the past month. While these are not formal recommendations, they could be a great place to kick off further research. I'll even get you started with some thoughts on Huron Consulting, which has recently been taken down a star or two or three by the CAPS community.
Why so blue?
Like the larger Accenture (NYSE: ACN ) and Cognizant Technology (Nasdaq: CTSH ) , Huron is a consulting firm in the business of helping customers get more juice out of their business. And right now should be a great time for these companies, as managers around the world are looking to them for help in running their businesses more efficiently and effectively.
But it's been anything but good times for Huron. On Monday, the company's stock took a nosedive as the company flooded the market with distressing announcements ranging from lowered 2009 revenue guidance to the revelation that the company has been improperly accounting for payouts for acquisitions, and that as a result the CEO, CFO, and chief accounting officer would be stepping down. Ouch, right?
Some Wall Street analysts have gone as far as to ponder whether the company will be able to continue as a going concern.
What the bulls say
There has been an impressive turnaround in sentiment on CAPS since Monday's announcement, with the stock rapidly diving from a perfect five stars to a cruddy two stars. There are, however, still some CAPS members sticking their necks out for this stock.
CAPS All-Star connorss gave Huron's stock an outperform rating, saying just yesterday:
Harsh market overcorrection. Huron is replacing leadership and working for full disclosure. Adjusting for "accounting errors" will not reduce stock value by 2/3, but perhaps by 10-20%.
If you ask me, though, there is really no reason to stick around to read any more chapters in the Huron story. With so many cheap, high-quality stocks out there right now, there seems little sense in chasing a company that could end up having its entire business dashed by a major hit to its credibility.
On the flip side, the list above includes GigaMedia, which is capitalizing on the online gaming market in China and currently trading at just 12 times expected 2009 earnings. It also includes United Breweries, which is the largest brewer in Chile and the second-largest brewer in Argentina -- not a bad position to be in considering the growth going on in South America. Neither is suffering from scandal, and both are still very highly regarded by the CAPS community.
But here's the important question: Do you think the recent drop has created a good buying opportunity? Or is Huron not worth touching with a 20-foot pole? Head over to CAPS and share your thoughts with the other 135,000 members. Even if you'd prefer to pass on Huron, you can check out a couple of the other stocks listed above, or any of the 5,300 stocks that are rated on CAPS.
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