With all the volatility in the markets today, there's no
shortage of market seers attempting to call a bottom. Ben
Bernanke
called a bottomnot once, but
twice. Heck, even Keanu Reeves laid out what a
world-ending market bottomlooks like.
Investors should consider buying stocks after a big
decline, when pessimism has unduly beaten good companies down
to great prices. That's why we here at the Fool -- and
140,000-plus investors like us -- look to the
Motley Fool
CAPScommunity to help sniff out the real opportunities
from languishing companies driven by speculation.
A real bottom or another leg down?
Of course, there's no foolproof method for timing a
market bottom. But CAPS has a great balance of both
quantitative and qualitative resources available on 5,300
stocks, and even a nifty
stock screening
toolto help investors quickly zero in on potential
investment opportunities. Once we've rounded up our
candidates, we can use all the information in CAPS to test
whether each company has already hit bottom or simply primed
shareholders for further pain.
I've used the CAPS screener to find $100 million-plus
companies that have seen their stock price appreciate by at
least 15% in the past 13 weeks even while they remain at
least 35% below their 52-week high. These stocks also have
both a positive return on equity and earnings per share over
the past 12 months. These criteria limit the results to
companies that have a history of delivering results
regardless of stock gyrations. If you'd like,
run this screen yourself; just keep in mind that results
may change as the market does.
Company
CAPS Rating
(out of 5)
13-Week
Price Change
% Below
52-Week High
Eagle Rock Energy Partners (Nasdaq:
EROC)
*****
49.0%
52.6%
Permian Basin Royalty Trust (NYSE:
PBT)
*****
32.0%
38.8%
Precision Drilling Trust
***** Continued... |