It’s easy to trot out legendary investor Peter Lynch’s name every time you find an undervalued fast-growing company, but the truth is that Lynch had many different criteria that had to be met before he would purchase a stock. I always keep certain Peter Lynch criteria in… Read More

Here’s a handy tip: Yahoo! Finance has a page with information on all sorts of bonds rates. The page makes it easy to see where bond yields are right now. Click here to see the list (be… Read More

Investors see little reason to buy any stocks having to do with housing right now, and for good reason. Recent data tell us that the long-awaited upturn in housing is still over the horizon. So shares prices — especially among home furnishing retailers — fall and fall some more. In the last three months, shares of Kirkland’s (Nasdaq: KIRK) have lost almost half of their value, Haverty’s (NYSE: HVT) and Ethan Allen (NYSE: ETH) have fallen by roughly one-third, while Bed, Bath & Beyond (Nasdaq: BBBY) and Pier One Imports (NYSE: PIR) have… Read More

Investors see little reason to buy any stocks having to do with housing right now, and for good reason. Recent data tell us that the long-awaited upturn in housing is still over the horizon. So shares prices — especially among home furnishing retailers — fall and fall some more. In the last three months, shares of Kirkland’s (Nasdaq: KIRK) have lost almost half of their value, Haverty’s (NYSE: HVT) and Ethan Allen (NYSE: ETH) have fallen by roughly one-third, while Bed, Bath & Beyond (Nasdaq: BBBY) and Pier One Imports (NYSE: PIR) have fallen roughly -20%. One could assume the sell-off was the result of steadily falling profit estimates, yet consensus expectations for Bed, Bath & Beyond’s profit in 2010 and 2011 have remained flat in the past three months, and Pier One’s profit outlook has actually been strengthening. (Ethan Allen and Haverty’s, which focus on more expensive bedroom and living room sets, have been the subject of downward estimate revisions). As the table below shows, these stocks now range from reasonably priced to dirt cheap. Company (Ticker) Recent… Read More

U.S. banks had a great run. From December 1994 to December 2006, the KBW Bank Sector Index (an index of leading banks) soared nearly +400%. But the financial crisis ended that party. Now the index is at 1996 levels again. Read More

When the topic is the current market, a lot of pundits like to talk about “the new normal” — that is to say, a range-bound stock market confined by a slow-growth economy. But when it comes to finding decent long-term… Read More

One of the realities of a tough market is that fully-priced stocks get discounted, and under-priced stocks become really, really cheap. You can forget about the notion that stocks always deserve to trade at whatever price they currently have — known as the Efficient-Market Hypothesis. Often times, the market is… Read More

Lost in all of this spring’s hand-wringing about the potentially negative impacts from President Obama’s health care overhaul, investors seemed to overlook two more powerful forces that could severely impact the health care industry. Consumers’ financial distress is leading to a sharp slowdown in elective medical procedures (as my colleague… Read More

You and I drive 70% of economic activity in this country. We are consumers. If we lose our jobs or our confidence in the economy, we stop spending. Businesses make less money and pull back on production. They lay off workers, who spend less money, and the vicious cycle continues. Some companies survive recessions and prosper in good economies because they make things we can’t do without, like toilet paper, soap and food. Other companies serve folks who have extra money to spend on special things, like hotels, jewelry and air… Read More

You and I drive 70% of economic activity in this country. We are consumers. If we lose our jobs or our confidence in the economy, we stop spending. Businesses make less money and pull back on production. They lay off workers, who spend less money, and the vicious cycle continues. Some companies survive recessions and prosper in good economies because they make things we can’t do without, like toilet paper, soap and food. Other companies serve folks who have extra money to spend on special things, like hotels, jewelry and air travel. [Read: 3 Reasons Why this Small Cap Could Return +200%] There is, however, a further class of discretionary expense called the luxury item. If a company sells luxury items, then chances are it has been devastated in this recession and its stock has been destroyed. #-ad_banner-#But if that company can survive the recession, bargain hunters may find a multi-bagger investment that others totally miss. I found one such company that a lot of investors had written off, but has since rocketed +400% off its lows. But even… Read More

It’s an old investing axiom that you can make money when stocks are hated. The rule also applies to the broader stock market and beaten-down sectors. It always pays to check out stocks and sectors that have sharply fallen to see if emotion-based selling has pushed them so far down… Read More

Investors in 3PAR (NYSE: PAR) can’t believe their good fortune. They woke up last Monday to find that their investment had nearly doubled in value after Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) announced plans to buy the data storage company. And this Monday morning, they got another gift when Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) announced… Read More