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.
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