John Reese is an expert in analyzing the investment criteria of "legendary" advisors with time-tested strategies. And one market approach that may be of particular interest to investors during the current period of market turmoil is the value strategy developed by Benjamin Graham. (For more on this strategy, see our other post, "Three Rules of Value Investing".)

In his Validea newsletter, John reese explains, "Benjamin Graham -- considered the greatest investment guru by Warren Buffett -- built his reputation by using an extremely conservative, low-risk approach to investing." Buffett, incidentally, was Ben Graham's student.

Reese continues, "To Graham, preserving one's original capital was every bit as important as netting big gains. Having lived through the 1929 market crash, it's no surprise that the strategy Graham laid out in his classic book The Intelligent Investor was a conservative, loss-averse approach.

"To Graham, an investment wasn't something that could be turned into quick, easy profits; anything that offers such 'easy' rewards also comes with substantial risk, and Graham abhorred risk. In terms of specifics, Graham's approach limited risk in a number of ways, and my Graham-based model lays out several of those methods.

Most of those designer watches you admire in exclusive shops are actually made by a relatively small number of industry stalwarts. One member of the club is headquartered in Paramus, New Jersey.

Movado Group (NYSE: MOV) designs, manufactures and distributes watches. The firm provides nine timepiece lines, including its own Movado, Ebel, Concord and Esq Swiss varieties, as well as Coach, Hugo Boss, Juicy Couture, Lacoste and Tommy Hilfiger licensed brands. The company also designs, develops, and markets proprietary Movado-branded jewelry and tabletop items. It sells its products directly and through a variety of retail outlets.

The firm pleased investors last week, when it reported Q2 EPS of 45 cents and revenues of $139.5 million. Analysts had been looking for 42 cents and $132.9 million. The COO particularly noted solid quarterly adjusted gross profit (63.6% of sales) and operating profit (11.7% of sales). Management also affirmed previous FY08 guidance. The news popped the shares out of a late-August/early-September "cup" into the mid-September "handle" of a Cup & Handle formation. The price is now showing signs of completing the pattern with a bullish rise from the right-hand side of the "handle".

Brokers recommend the issue with one "strong buy" and two "buys". Analysts see a 17 percent growth rate through the next year. The MOV P/E ratio (17.68), Price to Sales ratio (1.58), Price to Book ratio (2.23), Price to Cash Flow ratio (12.62), Price to Free Cash Flow ratio (17.51) and Return on Assets (8.94%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutions hold about 69 percent of the outstanding shares. The stock is one of those used to calculate the S&P 600 SmallCap Index. Over the past 52 weeks, it has traded between $22.99 and $35.40. A stop-loss of $27.70 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Sabre Holdings was the sole notable downgrade today.

• The travel commerce company, Sabre Holdings (NYSE: TSG), was downgraded to Sell from Buy at Soleil Securities after they agreed to be bought by Texas Pacific and Silver Lake Partners, two private equity firms, for ~$5 billion.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Telik Inc. (NASDAQ: TELK) was downgraded to Sell from Buy at Stifel following the disappointing ASSIST data.

• Movado Group (NASDAQ: MOV) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Matrix USA, citing valuation.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).