Monday, 2 January 2012

A Closer Look At The Basics Of Value Investing

By Alison Heath


A philosophy or practice of buying stocks that are fundamentally sound, with a stock price below its obvious value is referred to as value investing. Value investors are known to use various indicators in order to determine a company is both sound and the stock price is undervalued. Unlike any other style of investor out there, it's possible that the value investor is more concerned with the business and its fundamentals than other influences on the stock's price.

Fundamentals, such as dividends, earnings growth, cash flow, and book value are more critical than market forces on the stock's price. Generally buy and hold investors are value investors. They will hold a stock for long term periods and are not concerned with short term swings in the stock price.

Once the value investor is able to determine that the fundamentals are sound, but the stock is trading at a price below its obvious value, then he or she will be aware that this is a potential investment candidate. The market has incorrectly undervalued the stock and that is what you can assume. This also means that when the market corrects that mistake, 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

By dividing the current price of the stock by the annual earnings per share, you can calculate the P/E or the price to earnings ratio. With a higher P/E, the growth investors will then expect more earnings and the higher premium they are willing to pay for that anticipated growth.

Calculated by dividing the total liabilities by the shareholders equity is debt to equity.

Calculated by taking the current price per share and dividing by the book value per share is Price to Book Value.

If you want to calculate the PEG, you need to take the P/E and dividing it by the projected growth in earnings.

When it comes to the intrinsic value of a stock, it is a complicated process and is considered an inexact science by most investors. Generally determined based on an underlying perception of the value is the intrinsic value of a company or an asset. There are some factors that will determine the intrinsic value of a stock and these would include Brand Name, Goodwill, and barriers to entry in a market. You may be interested in looking at MorningStar.com for helping you determine a stocks intrinsic value. They calculate a number called "fair value" which is similar to intrinsic value.

There are a lot of investors that have increased their wealth substantially using a value-based approach to investing. A philosophy that works well over time if you buy carefully and use patience to hold for the long term is suggested in this overview of value investing.




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