Recs

7

7 Shippers Near 52-Week Lows

By Anand Chokkavelu, CFA | More Articles
August 2, 2011 | Comments (4)

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 semi-related companies.

Today, let's look at marine transportation stocks. Below are the seven companies in this space that are within 20% of their 52-week lows and have market caps above $200 million.

Company

Recent Price

52-Week Low

52-Week High

Trailing P/E Ratio

Price-to-Book Ratio

DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS  )

$3.80

$3.56

$6.44

6.2

0.4

Navios Maritime Partners (NYSE: NMM  )

$15.98

$15.86

$21.56

11.7

1.7

Diana Shipping (NYSE: DSX  )

$9.73

$9.57

$14.23

5.9

0.7

Safe Bulkers (NYSE: SB  )

$7.26

$6.97

$9.78

4.9

1.6

Navios Maritime Holdings (NYSE: NM  )

$4.26

$4.17

$6.29

6.4

0.4

Genco Shipping & Trading (NYSE: GNK  )

$5.97

$5.53

$18.08

2.3

0.2

Excel Maritime Carriers (NYSE: EXM  )

$2.49

$2.40

$6.63

2.3

0.1

Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Yahoo! Finance.

Each of the stocks above is involved in the drybulk shipping business. Taking price charts out for a few years rather than just 52 weeks, and the stock price drops are even more dramatic. Currently, we see very low price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios, but these can be deceiving, since dry bulk shipping rates have fallen precipitously. As new contracts are negotiated, earnings likely won't be so robust. That said, the time to think about buying is when the future looks bleak. Check out my recent analysis on this opportunity.

If you are interested in continuing your research on a stock mentioned here, add it to My Watchlist to stay abreast of all of our Foolish analysis.

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Anand Chokkavelu doesn't own shares of any stock mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

  • Report this Comment On August 02, 2011, at 11:53 AM, TheDumbMoney wrote:

    Shipping stocks have all of the business-model-horror of airline stocks, but with even less brand power, and maybe even more cyclicality. As you state in your prior post, their book value is, while not quite meaningless, not necessarily indicative of true 'value.' In my mind they are nothing more than short-term cyclical plays when we are entering or leaving recession. Or, alternatively, I just don't get them.

  • Report this Comment On August 02, 2011, at 1:29 PM, whyaduck1128 wrote:

    This is a dull-sounding business with not-so-dull swings in revenues and stock prices. You have to be able to get in, win, and get out, not exactly the Fool way of doing things. I bought SB about 19 months ago, made a little, got out with a long-term small profit (plus some decent dividends along the way) around $9, then possibly messed up by getting in again in the high 7 range.

    Dividends aside, these are stocks for your gambling money, not your buy-and-forget cash.

  • Report this Comment On August 02, 2011, at 3:53 PM, psl8er wrote:

    The shipping stocks in both wet and dry bulk have not bottomed yet. With freight rates looking to continue at today's levels through into 2013 many of the companies will simply run out of cash.

    When this happens there will be a massive sale of ships at a deep discount to today's values.This will further erode the market values of most companies and lead to bankruptcys. With no value in the corporations the opportunity will be to invest in newly created ones expanding their capital bases.

  • Report this Comment On August 02, 2011, at 4:01 PM, TMFBomb wrote:

    @dumberthanafool and whyaduck1128,

    It's a dangerous industry, for sure. I'm treading cautiously as I explore the industry further.

    -Anand

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Related Tickers

5/25/2012 4:01 PM
NM $3.48 Up +0.14 +4.19%
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SB $6.62 Up +0.10 +1.53%
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