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Chasing Value: Berkshire Hathaway -- the time is now

Ooooh yes, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) is a value, and it will be all the more so if this market takes a summer swoon, or global markets shift, or big caps take the lead. If you are just starting out and want to have a diversified solid foundation, this is a good stock to start with. You will also be a part of a special club receiving the golden words of Buffett in the annual report, although they are on the BRK website for all to see already.

Buffett will not be able to turn BRK.A or B into a 10-fer or a 5-fer over the next few years, but he can beat the overall market, and if he does it again it would surprise no one. According to AOL Money & Finance, this stock has a P/E three points below the DJIA, a low enough P/S and P/B that would make it pop-up on all my stock screens (except that I want dividends so it never has), consistent expansion of its ROE, and low debt -- and that spells value to me.

  • Price-to-earnings P/E: 14.92 (TTM)
  • Price-to-sales P/S: 1.71 (TTM)
  • Price-to-book P/B: 1.55 (TTM)
  • Price-to-cash-flow P/CF: 14.03 (TTM)
  • Return-on-equity ROE: 11.02 (TTM)
  • Long Term Debt-to-Equity (MRQ) 0.3
  • Dividend Yield 0.0%

This five year chart is indicative of a pattern with BRK.B (B-Shares are almost affordable, A-Shares are not) where the stock trades in a tight range, moves up to catch up with earnings and equity expansion and then trades within a tight range for a few more years. My rationalization for this is that the stock is as boring as Buffett's acquisitions (his famous words) and because of its high share price, low trading volume (it does not even meet S&P threshold for inclusion) and lack of startling press releases, there is always a time lag between the build-up of equity and the market's appreciation of same. However, at the first sign of market weakness this safe haven may jump off the $3600 share price it has been straddling for almost a year.

Continue reading Chasing Value: Berkshire Hathaway -- the time is now

Serious Money: Whittling away at the Dow - MSFT, PFE, PG, UTX, VZ, & WMT: Part 6

This will conclude the whittling process of the 30 Dow Jones Industrials with the last six below. Although the Dow has done very well in the last six months there still appears to be plenty of value here from everything I am able to surmise.

So far I have whittled the Dow down to six stocks: Alcoa Aluminum (NYSE: AA), American International Group (NYSE: AIG), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and The Home Depot (NYSE: HD). You can link to the previous posts, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 or Part 5 for your own review and comments.

Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is a tough one for me to review because there are a lot of mixed signals in the data and the market about Pfizer concerning its pipeline of products. Most notably it has a P/S of 4.14 (TTM) which would place it outside of my consideration by a factor of two under most situations. This is a result of declining sales, but the decline has not hurt earnings in a big way, so the P/E has been coming down as a result. The P/E is about average for the DOW but historically low for Pfizer. If the "pipeline" is truly bare then this trend will continue. However, the stock is supported by a 4.2% yield, almost no long-term debt, and trailing margins that are HUGE at about 40%. Back to the less than appealing issues: PFE has a price-to-cash-flow ratio of almost 15, too high for me. In the long run Pfizer may be a great hold. If you are looking for a solid dividend payer with resistance to much downside risk it would be great for your Roth IRA, but here and now, it might be a short term value trap. In the absence of an acquisition or great new drug where is the upside?

Continue reading Serious Money: Whittling away at the Dow - MSFT, PFE, PG, UTX, VZ, & WMT: Part 6

Chasing Value: Procter & Gamble not ripe yet

There are few people reading this story that do not know about the quality of Procter and Gamble (NYSE: PG) -- the company or the stock. In the first of my new chronicles titled Serious Money: GE, JNJ, PG, PEP or index funds?, several people commented about PG or asked me about it privately. Let me start by saying this is one that you should have on your watch list but I do not think it is ripe for picking at this time.

The stock is not only near a 52-week high but an all-time high, so no matter the quality of the company, caution should be exercised. It closed Friday at $63.80 having reached $66.33 on January 19, 2006. Oddly the stock collapsed in sympathy with the rest of the market March 2000, and a year later after rising 30% it fell back to the same place at around $30. Over the next five years, as you can see, it retraced its steps of the previous five years, and then some.

Chart

Continue reading Chasing Value: Procter & Gamble not ripe yet

Serious Money: GE, JNJ, PG, PEP or index funds?

Warren Buffett has acknowledged investing in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and the Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE:PG) in the past few years. Among all the endorsements a company could possibly get, this is better than a 5-Star rating from Morning Star and a a boooyaah! from James Cramer combined. Of course, Mr. Buffett's choices are far more limited than yours or mine, given the size of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A), the vessel he is navigating that could have been included in this review as well.

I was looking once again at large, well diversified companies that are broadly held by institutions and individuals alike that most investors would generally agree are safe havens. To round out the discussion, I have added General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and PepsiCo Inc (NYSE:PEP). There are several others that could be added to this group but I have enough for this post's purpose.

The question is whether investors are better off buying into a few broadly held index funds or better off holding a few dividend paying large cap stocks? I am a firm believer in keeping at least half of the money you save, invested in the stock market, placed in indexed mutual funds, or exchange traded funds with low fees and low stock turnover, minimizing short term capital gains.

Continue reading Serious Money: GE, JNJ, PG, PEP or index funds?

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+20.0310,246.97
NASDAQ-2.982,151.08
S&P 500-0.071,093.01

Last updated: November 10, 2009: 06:26 PM

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