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4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Loews

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, diversified holding company Loews Corp. (NYSE: L  ) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Loews' business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Loews facts

Headquarters (Founded) New York (1954)
Market Cap $16.97 billion
Industry Multi-line insurance / oil & gas drilling
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $14.57 billion
Management Co-Chairman Andrew Tisch
Co-Chairman Jonathan Tisch
CEO James Tisch
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) 6.3%
Cash/Debt $7.05 billion / $9.56 billion
Dividend Yield 0.6%
Competitors

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A  )

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP  )

Noble (NYSE: NE  )

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 93% of the 524 members who have rated Loews believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include All-Star catoismymotor, who is ranked in the top 5% of our community, and donsguesswork.

Late last year, catoismymotor tapped Loews as an ideal stock for the long-run:

The same family has run this machine for decades, know what they are doing. They are bouncing back, on their way up. If you are into [long-term buy and hold] this one should be on your watch list.

Currently, Loews even sports a cheapish price-to-book of 0.9. That represents a discount to rivals on both sides of its business, including both fellow insurer Berkshire Hathaway (1.2) as well as energy producers Kinder Morgan (3.4) and Noble (1.4).

CAPS member donsguesswork expands on the outperform argument:

Loews is a diversified investor with several irons in the fire, including [CNA Financial], [Diamond Offshore], [Boardwalk Pipeline]. ... [Highmount] Exploration and production, the newest subsidiary concentrates only on its permian basin play in Texas. A few years ago Loews sold tobacco company and other businesses trying to position itself to weather the coming hyper inflation that comes when a country borrows 40% or more to survive. Lowes ... is in control of its own destiny.

What do you think about Loews, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Owning exceptional stocks is a surefire way to secure your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to find them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!  

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Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended Berkshire. The Motley Fool owns shares of Berkshire, Noble, and Diamond Offshore. 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 Fool's disclosure policy always gets a perfect score.


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 May 18, 2011, at 2:10 AM, TMFRosetint wrote:

    Hey Brian,

    You're looking at the consolidated figures when calculating the company's cash/debt position. CNA Financial, which Loews owns 90% of, inflates is debt greatly. If you back out CNA - which is publicly traded, by the way - you'll find that the holding company has about four billion in net cash.

    There's no reason to consolidate them from an investment standpoint, since with a company like this it makes more sense to do a sum-of-the-parts analysis of it in my opinion.

    Best wishes,

    Scott

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Related Tickers

5/25/2012 4:00 PM
L $39.22 Down -0.15 -0.38%
Loews Corp CAPS Rating: *****
NE $33.75 Down -0.30 -0.88%
Noble Corp CAPS Rating: *****
KMP $79.67 Up +0.29 +0.37%
Kinder Morgan Ener… CAPS Rating: *****
BRK-A $119500.00 Down -717.00 -0.60%
Berkshire Hathaway… CAPS Rating: ****

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