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 application software stocks. Below are the 10 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 |
Forward P/E Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE) |
$28.77 |
$25.45 |
$35.99 |
15.7 |
12.3 |
|
Synopsys (Nasdaq: SNPS) |
$24.15 |
$20.80 |
$29.35 |
19.5 |
13.6 |
|
Concur Technologies (Nasdaq: CNQR) |
$47.85 |
$43.38 |
$58.19 |
301.0 |
51.7 |
|
Quest Software (Nasdaq: QSFT) |
$19.23 |
$18.27 |
$28.47 |
21.1 |
14.2 |
|
Advent Software (Nasdaq: ADVS) |
$26.93 |
$23.63 |
$31.63 |
54.2 |
34.9 |
|
VanceInfo Technologies (NYSE: VIT) |
$17.25 |
$16.87 |
$41.06 |
26.3 |
18.2 |
|
NetScout Systems (Nasdaq: NTCT) |
$15.53 |
$13.50 |
$27.83 |
17.9 |
14.8 |
|
Deltek (Nasdaq: PROJ) |
$7.53 |
$6.77 |
$8.68 |
NM |
19.5 |
|
Net 1 Ueps Technologies (Nasdaq: UEPS) |
$8.62 |
$7.29 |
$15.04 |
NM |
5.1 |
|
Motricity (Nasdaq: MOTR) |
$6.66 |
$6.49 |
$31.95 |
NM |
8.5 |
Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Yahoo! Finance.
Two sets of stocks jump out at me. For proven profitability in the past, Adobe, Synopsys, and NetScout trade the cheapest on a trailing P/E basis. Each is still above 15, but they're the lowest multiples of the bunch. Meanwhile, Net 1 Ueps and Motricity have no current earnings, but are trading at sub-10 forward P/E multiples. Net 1 Ueps is a Motley Fool Global Gains pick and my fellow Fool Rick Munarriz makes a compelling case for looking into Motricity.
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