If you're aiming to "buy low and sell high," then it makes infinite sense to start your search with bargain-priced stocks. Regularly reviewing a list of stocks trading near their 52-week lows can be a great first step.
Here, I'll try to do the initial legwork for you. To prevent us from being inundated with scores of disparate companies, I'll conduct my search by industry. This will allow us to make some initial comparisons among semirelated companies.
There are 24 industry groups as defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS). Automobiles and components is one of them.
Below are the top four companies in this space (by market cap) that are hugging 52-week lows.
|
Company
|
Recent Price
|
52-Week Low
|
52-Week High
|
P/E Ratio (Trailing)
|
|
General Motors (NYSE: GM )
|
$36.02
|
$33.10
|
$36.30
|
NM
|
|
China Automotive Systems (Nasdaq: CAAS )
|
$13.27
|
$13.10
|
$27.17
|
12.3
|
|
Wonder Auto Technology (Nasdaq: WATG )
|
$7.53
|
$6.58
|
$13.66
|
8.25
|
|
China XD Plastics (Nasdaq: CXDC )
|
$5.12
|
$5.00
|
$8.95
|
NM
|
Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's.
One warning before we talk about a few of these companies. Some of these companies are near both their 52-week lows and their 52-week highs. The screen still works as an idea generator, though.
GM's the stock above that has been on my radar recently. It IPO'd last month after emerging from bankruptcy. As a basket along with three other unloved companies, I recently called GM "the most shocking buy opportunity in the market."
Emerging from bankruptcy, General Motors is now streamlined and sports a pretty darn clean balance sheet. Its cash position roughly cancels out its debt and pension obligations. In addition, per The Wall Street Journal, GM was allowed to keep up to $45.4 billion in pre-bankruptcy losses for tax purposes. In other words, it doesn't have to pay taxes on its first $45.4 billion of profit. If you believe GM management's projections (roughly $10 billion in annual pre-tax, pre-pension-gains profit within the next few years) and factor in this tax break, GM is trading at around 5 times future earnings.
Much like Ford (NYSE: F ) , GM is an American car company worth looking into again. They're both high on my personal watchlist -- Ford for a price dip, GM at today's prices.
If you are interested in reading more about these stocks, add them to My Watchlist to find all of our Foolish analysis on them.
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