Saturday, December 31, 2011

A Closer Look At The Basics Of Value Investing

By Alison Heath


Value Investing refers to a philosophy or practice of buying stocks that are fundamentally sound, with a stock price below its obvious value. There are various indicators that Value Investors use to determine that a company is both sound and the stock price is undervalued. The value investor is perhaps more concerned with the business and its fundamentals than other influences on the stock's price unlike any other style of investor out there.

There are fundamentals that are more critical than market forces on the stock's price and these include dividends, earnings growth, cash flow, and book value. When it comes to value investors, they are generally buy and hold investors. What they will do is hold a stock for long term periods and they are not concerned with short term swings in the stock price.

When the Value Investor determines that the fundamentals are sound, but the stock is trading at a price below its obvious value, he or she knows that this is a potential investment candidate. The assumption is that the market has incorrectly undervalued the stock. When the market corrects that mistake, then it means that the stock's price should increase towards the obvious value point.

How do Value Investors find a potential investment?

1. price to earnings ratio is in the bottom 10 percentile for its sector debt to equity ratio is less than 1 price to book value ratio is less than 1 4. PEG value of less than 1 Stock value is trading at 60-70% of its intrinsic value

The P/E or price to earnings ratio can be calculated by dividing the current price of the stock by the annual earnings per share. Having a higher P/E would mean that the more earnings growth investors will expect and the higher premium they are willing to pay for that anticipated growth.

Debt to equity is calculated by dividing the total liabilities by the shareholders equity.

You can calculate Price to Book value if you take the current price per share and dividing by the book value per share.

By taking the P/E and dividing it by the projected growth in earnings, you can calculate the PEG.

The intrinsic value of a stock is a complicated process and is considered an inexact science by most investors. The intrinsic value of a company or an asset is generally determined based on an underlying perception of the value. Some of the factors that will determine the intrinsic value of a stock are Brand Name, Goodwill, and barriers to entry in a market. What you may be interest in looking is the MorningStar.com for helping you determine a stocks intrinsic value. A number called 'fair value,' which is similar to intrinsic value, is what they calculate.

By using a value-based approach to investing, a lot of investors are able to increase their wealth. In this overview of value investing, it is suggested that a philosophy that works well over time if you buy carefully and use patience to hold for the long term.




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