Beltway Bet: iRobot
Posted: November 20, 2008 Filed under: Investing, Technology, Washington Leave a comment »Since an initial public offering three years ago, iRobot’s stock price has steadily dropped. The Burlington, Mass., company, whose machines can vacuum your floor or help soldiers sniff out roadside bombs, went public at $24. Recent price: $9.
By certain metrics, the stock looks tempting. Its latest 12-month price-to-earnings ratio is a modest 15, while the company’s enterprise value, market capitalization plus net debt, stands at just 0.6 times its 12-month revenue of $316 million. The latter multiple is in line with a big defense contractor like Lockheed Martin and well below that of a comparable niche technology company like AeroVironment, whose enterprise-value-to-sales multiple is 2.5.
Full story at Forbes.com
One Roll of The Dice
Posted: November 19, 2008 Filed under: Investing Leave a comment »For the 12 months ended Oct. 31, the S&P 500 lost 37%. Happily for the five bears in our annual equities contest, their picks did considerably worse. In October 2007 we challenged them each to name one stock that would trail the S&P over a one-year period. On average their stocks fell 61%. All five accepted our customary invitation to the winners to play again another year.
Our panel’s 12 bulls scraped by. Only five of their picks beat the market, and only two of those showed gains. As a group they declined 37%, same as the S&P 500.
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Richard Jandrain, head of growth investing at Fort Washington Investment Advisors, leads the bulls. A year ago he liked the look of Pharmion, a developer of cancer treatments. So did Celgene (nasdaq: CELG – news – people ), which acquired Pharmion last March and helped Jandrain to a 50% gain.
Value Stock In Pictures: Alcoa
Posted: November 10, 2008 Filed under: Investing Leave a comment »Alcoa, one of the world’s biggest aluminum producers, might tempt a contrarian. Here’s a closer look.
Defense Stocks At The Turning Point
Posted: November 6, 2008 Filed under: Investing, Washington Leave a comment »WASHINGTON, D.C. – With the election of Barack Obama, uncertainty hangs over U.S. defense companies. Michael Lewis, equity analyst at BB&T Capital Markets, isn’t ready to make a call on how things will shape up for this sector in the Obama administration’s first six months.
“It’s very difficult to determine until we actually begin to see directional changes in funding or contracts actually starting to be pulled to the side,” he says. “Longer term, I do think there will be some type of sea change with regard to how dollars are spent.”
Fittingly, U.S. aerospace and defense stocks didn’t dodge Wednesday’s post-election market drop. The S&P 500′s aerospace and defense constituents fell 5% yesterday, in line with the broader index’s decline.
Full story at Forbes.com
