My investment strategy seeks out stocks that are cheap relative to their growth rate — referred to as growth at a reasonable price, or GARP. To that end, I seek out stocks that are selling at low price-earnings-to-growth, or PEG, ratios.
The price-to-earnings, or P/E, ratio is a measure of risk. It calculates the multiple of earnings an investor is willing to pay. The higher the multiple, the greater the stock price will react to changes in earnings per share. A stock sporting a lower multiple is considered safer because of the lesser impact that earnings has upon stock price. Lower-P/E stocks tend to compensate investors by paying dividends.
Best Stocks To Buy For 2012: F.N.B. Corporation (FNB)
F.N.B. Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides various financial services to consumers and small to medium-sized businesses. The company operates in four segments: Community Banking, Wealth Management, Insurance, and Consumer Finance. The Community Banking segment offers various commercial banking services, including commercial and individual demand, savings, and time deposit accounts; and commercial, mortgage, and individual installment loans. The Wealth Management segment provides a range of personal and corporate fiduciary services, such as the administration of decedent and trust estates. It also offers various alternative products, including securities brokerage and investment advisory services, mutual funds, and annuities. The Insurance segment operates as a full-service insurance agency that offers commercial and personal insurance through various carriers; acts as a reinsurer to underwrite credit life, and accident and health insurance; and offers title insurance products. The Consumer Finance segment involves in making personal installment loans to individuals; and purchasing installment sales finance contracts from retail merchants. As of December 31, 2009, it had 224 community banking offices in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and 57 consumer finance offices in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Tennessee. The company was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in Hermitage, Pennsylvania.
Best Stocks To Buy For 2012: STEC Inc. (STEC)
STEC, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets enterprise-class flash solid-state drives (SSDs) for use in high-performance storage and server systems. Its solid-state drive products include ZeusIOPS SSDs, which provide enterprise-class data storage solutions; and MACH-class SSDs that are small form factor storage solutions for mission-critical systems in various industries. The company?s flash cards and flash module products comprise ATA PC Cards for equipment requiring standard form factors and moderate capacities, such as data recorders, avionics systems, and telecommunication applications; CompactFlash products, which provide interoperability with systems based on the PC Card ATA standard by using a passive adapter; flash modules; secure digital memory cards; USB flash drives; and single chip drives. It also offers dynamic random access memory (DRAM) products, which include dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs), small-outline DIMMs, mini-registered DIMMs, very low profile registered DIMMs, and fully-buffered DIMMs for computing, communications, and industrial applications. In addition, the company provides integrated circuit tower stacked components for thin small outline package and ball grid array semiconductor packages for use on memory modules and within high capacity flash products; DRAM modules with stacked components for use primarily in high-performance servers, workstations, switches and routers, and other custom systems; and flash products with stacked components. It sells its products through direct sales force and original equipment manufacturer distributors in the United States and internationally. STEC, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Santa Ana, California.
Advisors’ Opinion:
* Curtis2011-8-26Stec is the only provider qualified and shipping product in the Enterprise Storage Market for Fibre Channel and SAS interface drives. While competition appears inevitable in the market in the future, the brokerage believes the company has a strong technological and qualification lead at the OEMs, which should enable it to maintain market share leadership in the future.”Given our expectation that the Enterprise Storage SSD market is likely to be significantly up in 2011 over 2010, and STEC appears likely to maintain an edge over competition in terms of technology and, hence, market share, we believe STEC shares at current levels do not capture the potential upside in terms of market potential or competitive positioning,” the analysts said.
Best Stocks To Buy For 2012: Imergent Inc. (IIG)
Advisors’ Opinion:
* Zacks2011-10-24iMergent, Inc. (IIG) said it made progress on all fronts and delivered a solid fiscal first quarter performance in early November. The company, which provides eCommerce and software for small businesses and entrepreneurs, stated that strong domestic sales and a reinvigorated international program spawned fiscal first-quarter revenue of $29 million, compared to $11.4 million a year earlier. Furthermore, net income reached 18 cents per share, reversing a year-ago loss. Net dollar volume of contracts written was $32.4 million, compared to $17 million. Shares of iMergent jumped 38% during November and reached a new 52-week high on the 16th of the month.iMergent increased its guidance for full year 2007 due to strong demand and response to its marketing. Net dollar volume of contracts written is expected to grow between 25% and 30% from fiscal 2006.
Best Stocks To Buy For 2012: Modine Manufacturing Company (MOD)
Modine Manufacturing Company engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of heat exchangers and systems for use in on-highway and off-highway original equipment manufacturer (OEM) vehicular applications, and to various building, industrial, refrigeration, and fuel cell markets. It offers power train cooling products, including engine cooling modules, radiators, charge-air-coolers, condensers, fan shrouds, and surge tanks; on-engine cooling products comprising exhaust gas recirculation coolers, engine oil coolers, fuel coolers, charge-air-coolers, and intake air coolers; oil coolers consisting of transmission oil coolers and power steering coolers; and fuel coolers. The company also provides gas-fired, hydronic, electric, and oil-fired unit heaters; indoor and outdoor duct furnaces; infrared units; hydronic products, including commercial fin-tube radiation, cabinet unit heaters, and convectors; roof mounted direct and indirect fired makeup air units; unit ventilators; close control units for precise temperature and humidity control applications; chillers; ceiling cassettes; and condensing units and coils for heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, and vehicular applications. Its customers include truck, automobile, bus, specialty vehicle, agricultural and construction, and heating and cooling OEMs; construction contractors; wholesalers of plumbing and heating equipment; fuel cell manufacturers; engine manufacturers; industrial manufacturers of material handling equipment, generator sets, and compressors; and various end users. The company offers its products primarily in North America, Europe, South America, Africa, and the Asia/Pacific. Modine Manufacturing Company also exports its products. The company was founded in 1916 and is headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin.
