Best Buffett Stocks by Book Value

One of the classic ratios that investors consider before investing in a stock is the price-to-book ratio, the measure of the stock price in relation to its book value -- in other words, the net worth of the company divided by the number of shares.

So if the company liquidated all assets, paid off all debts and divided up what was left by the number of shares, that would be the book value per share. Many times the book value is very conservative because real estate, which may have been owned for many years, can be carried on the books at cost.

The lower the price-to-book ratio, the better. Investors are looking for a price-to-book as close to 1 as possible (or even lower) as a factor when looking at all the appropriate metrics for a stock.

Stockpickr has reviewed the list of stocks held by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and sorted out the stocks with the lowest price-to-book ratios into the Best Buffett Stocks by Book.

The Buffett stock with the lowest price-to-book is Wesco FinancialWSC, which is involved in three businesses: property and casualty insurance, furniture rental and steel. It has a price-to-book of 1.1. The company earlier this month reported a 3.8% increase in net earnings. The stock has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 32 and a yield of 0.4%.