Show Me the Value

Here are four stocks that turned up this week on my "Ben Graham" style value screen.  I run a handful of screens every couple of weeks to look for ideas and there seems to be some potential in a couple of these names.  The screen that I run is pretty basic and I use FINVIZ to run it.  This is an excellent website that offers up so many free tools that I can literally spend hours on it just playing around.  Check out the site if you haven't already..fyi, I have no affiliation with FINVIZ, I'm just an enthusiastic user of the site.


On to the good stuff.  Below, are some pictures and charts that give a brief rundown of the 4 stocks that are currently coming up on the screen.  Then at the bottom of this post is a screen shot of the settings that I use to run the screen.  If you're interested in this type of screen, just plug in the same values and then begin tweaking the values and filters.  Let me know if you find an interesting take on this screen.  Here are the current value candidates:

 My favorite on this screen is CRWS.  CRWS just broke out of a range and is exhibiting major strength.  A pullback to the 50 day moving average around $4.50 could provide a great long entry with a favorable risk/reward outlook.  ELNK is also worth keeping an eye on..it could be a good trade as well, it just needs to find some support after its recent sell off. 

As for the Value Screen itself.  It is a Graham style screen because it uses similar criteria and concepts that Graham endorsed.  These stocks have a relatively low Price/Book ratio and a low P/E.  They also have low Debt/Equity and positive earnings growth.  Furthermore, these stocks have a current ratio of at least 1.5.  The idea behind this type of screen is to find stocks that are cheap using the Price/Book and P/E but then qualifying the cheap stocks by making sure they have low debt and plenty of cash to meet their near term obligations.  Some stocks have a low P/E for a reason, and their P/Es continue to get lower and lower as the business gets closer and closer to having to shut down forever.  This is why Graham preached about the importance of the examining the "debt" side of the equation.

Here are the parameters that I use for the screen:

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!


TLT