A slew of requests came in for the cheapest stocks rated 5 stars by Morningstar.
Cheap can be defined in different ways, so I'll go through various filters on Morningstar's 5-star stocks.
Here are the five cheapest by share price:
- Entorian Tech (ENTN) ... $1.20
- Replidyne (RDYN) ... $1.49
- Sanmina (SANM) ... $1.64
- Golfsmith (GOLF) ... $1.78
- Leadis Tech (LDIS) ... $1.80
Here are the five most below their 52-week high:
- MannKind Corp. (MNKD) ... 85% below 52-week high
- Vanda Pharma (VNDA) ... 83% below 52-week high
- USEC Inc. (USU) ... 80% below 52-week high
- Replidyne (RDYN) ... 80% below 52-week high
- VeriFone (PAY) ... 78% below 52-week high
Here are the five cheapest by price/sales ratio:
- Rite Aid (RAD) ... 0.0 P/S
- Asbury Automotive (ABG) ... 0.1 P/S
- Group 1 Automotive (GPI) ... 0.1 P/S
- Ingram Micro (IM) ... 0.1 P/S
- Lithia Motors (LAD) ... 0.1 P/S
Here are the five cheapest by forward price/earnings ratio:
- Golfsmith (GOLF) ... 4.0 forward P/E
- Horizon Lines (HRZ) ... 4.4 forward P/E
- NightHawk Radiology (NHWK) ... 5.8 forward P/E
- Tesoro (TSO) ... 5.9 forward P/E
- Lithia Motors (LAD) ... 6.0 forward P/E
Here are the five cheapest by price/earnings to growth ratio:
- Golfsmith (GOLF) ... 0.26 PEG ratio
- Tesoro (TSO) ... 0.28 PEG ratio
- NightHawk Radiology (NHWK) ... 0.29 PEG ratio
- Allied Irish Banks (AIB) ... 0.36 PEG ratio
- Tessera Tech (TSRA) ... 0.36 PEG ratio
Let's look a little more closely at the five stocks appearing on more than one of the valuation screens above, indicating its being cheap by multiple measures.
Golfsmith retails golf and tennis equipment via the internet, a catalog, and 70 stores across the United States. The good news is that the aging population in the U.S. should continue to make golf popular, and the company can probably add another 40 stores. The bad news is that the slow economy and high energy and food costs leaves people with less to spend on golf. The bad news won't last forever, though, making this look like a nice recovery candidate.
Lithia Motors retails new and used vehicles. The new ones, all 28 brands, are sold at 107 L1 stores mostly in the western U.S. The used ones are sold at three used car dealerships called L2. The good news is that the company's no-haggle approach and other customer-friendly mandates should create growing popularity. The bad news is that more than a third of its vehicle revenue is from Chrysler, Ford, and GM models, brands that, sadly, will probably continue losing market share to Asian competitors.