Bargain hunter John Buckingham of the Al Frank Fund doesn't see near as many deals in the market today versus four months ago. But there are still a few places where investors can "buy dollar bills for 50 cents," he says (Buckingham seeks cheap stocks with above-average growth potential, looking out over a three- to five-year period.) Per Buckingham, here are some names to put on your shopping list:
TCF Financial: "This bank out of Minnesota was one of first to repay TARP even before it became fashionable to repay. I also like BB&T Corp., a major Southeastern bank with strong capital ratios. In the insurance space, a name I like is Chubb, a high-quality company with terrific earnings."
When it comes to healthcare, Buckingham says, "We like Varian Medical. Valuations are what attract us. Here, the stock is trading at 14 times earnings. We think it should be higher given the company's long-term potential. Abbot Labs has a good yield, 3.5 percent, and it's also a stock that has really come down, trading at 13 times earnings. We like their product pipelines."
Technology: "We like the large-cap names: Cisco, Microsoft or Intel. These three names are attractive because of valuations. Microsoft is trading at about the lowest multiple it ever has. It has above-market growth potential and below-market risk. The others are trading at similar metrics that are not indicative of their true growth potential."
In the defense space, Buckingham likes General Dynamics: "There's certainly concern about budget cuts out of Washington…but General Dynamics has a very solid backlog in our opinion and a single-digit P/E of 9 and a decent dividend yield."
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