What's your investment style? Sooner or later, all investors have to answer this pretty loaded question. Are you a Rule Maker or a Rule Breaker? A grow-getter or a value-seeker? A foolish speculator or a Foolish investor?
Although it's always good to clarify our general tolerance for risk-taking, we should never forget two important things:
- Growth investing and value investing are joined at the hip, and
- The most awesome growth stocks are also undervalued stocks.
The best of both worlds
Successful investing isn't simply about buying stocks with the lowest price-to-earnings ratios, or ones with the most spectacular growth rates. Instead, the key to investing is putting your money on the most attractive risk/reward propositions that Mr. Market has to offer.
Buying growing companies at discounted prices is probably the best way to do that. This approach earns you the double benefit of buying a stock that trades below its fair value today, and owning a business that's well positioned to grow that value tomorrow.
We've got these stocks PEG-ed
So, with our hearts set on growth -- but our brains stubbornly fixated on getting a fair price for it -- here are seven more reasonably priced, fast-growing favorites of our Motley Fool CAPS community.
In addition to having five-year estimated growth rates of at least 15%, and PEG ratios of less than 1, these stocks have received a four- or five-star rating, out of a possible five, from our pool of more than 60,000 individual and professional investors.
Company |
Estimated 5-Year Earnings Growth Rate |
PEG Ratio |
Current CAPS Rating |
---|---|---|---|
Silicon Motion Technology |
25% |
0.52 |
***** |
Harris |
27% |
0.60 |
***** |
Sykes Enterprises |
22% |
0.88 |
***** |
Kforce |
17% |
0.89 |
***** |
AMN Healthcare Services (AHS) |
19% |
0.92 |
***** |
Greatbatch |
26% |
0.74 |
**** |
Epicor Software |
17% |
0.88 |
**** |
As always, don't take these as well-formulated investment recommendations, but rather as candidates for further research. Regardless of which investment approach you take, due diligence is the thread that binds all superior returns.
To get you started, though, here's a brief summary of one stock that caught my attention.
Back in a flash?
As a freelance writer who likes to work in a variety of settings (home, library, anywhere wireless, and so on), I know that being able to transport files is pretty vital. My trusty USB memory has helped me become the Foolish hobo that I am today, but for some reason, I had never really looked into flash as an investment opportunity. Fortunately, not all Fools are as oblivious as I am.
Silicon Motion -- whose controllers are used primarily for NAND flash card memory products -- has maintained a five-star rating for six months straight, with more than 312 Fools calling an outperform on this one. This feat is even more impressive when you consider its nearly 40% price decline over the last couple of months, caused by tough flash supply conditions of late, and, of course, Mr. Market's general malaise. It's virtually impossible to call tops and bottoms with stocks, but considering the compelling PEG here, and the fact that our community thinks the company's problems are just short-term in nature, Silicon Motion is interesting to say the least.
Fundamentally, Silicon Motion looks nothing like a flash (card?) in the pan. In each of the past three years, this company has delivered returns on equity above 20%, while maintaining a squeaky-clean balance sheet. In its latest quarter, it reported top-line and earnings growth of 111% and 106%, respectively. Additionally, management often cites an IDC report that forecasts massive growth in the USB 2.0 flash drive market as a huge reason to remain optimistic about the future.
Of course, there are plenty of different ways to play the growth of USB flash, including competitors SanDisk, Alcor Micro, and Samsung. But given this stock's recent haircut and our community's overwhelming bullishness, it seems that Silicon Motion might be a good place to start.
A spotlight on a few CAPS residents
- NetscribeSemiCdr throws us a quick top-down pitch on Silicon Motion: "A recently published report -- with projections of 89% of U.S. households having at least one cell phone, and 50% at least one MP3 player by the year 2010 -- is promising news for the company ... the future prospects of the stock look good and are all set for a bull run."
- Meanwhile, CAPS All-Star hirshey sums up some Silicon Motion valuation work: "Semiconductor company is undervalued. Current stock price has yet to catch up with explosive growth rates, those which should continue well into the double digits for the next few years. Profit margins are impressive and will only continue to improve as efficiency increases and excess costs diminish."
- Finally, CAPS All-Star JR10022 addresses the stock's recent shock: "This latest plunge was an overreaction to a perceived short-term problem in flash memory production. Just by drifting back to fair value, this will outperform the market in the next year or so ... "
Get growin', Fool
So, does the sound of buying high-growth companies at decent prices make complete sense to you? More appropriately, how could it not? Join our Motley Fool CAPS community to get more analysis on the above ideas, create your own list of fairly priced growers, or even weigh in with a sharp opinion of your own.
Within moments, you'll have access to stock ideas that can provide the best of both value and growth investing worlds. Oh, and it's absolutely free. Now that's what I call a reasonable price.
Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. The Fool has a disclosure policy.