Stockpickr: The Top Internet Comeback Kids

Stock quotes in this article: CMGI , INSP , MOT , MSFT , SIRI , GLD , NRF  

Another company that's interesting is InfoSpace(INSP Quote), which hit a high of $400 in 2000 and is now sitting around $20. InfoSpace is in the mobile media space -- selling ring tones, etc. -- as well as the search engine space. The company has $400 million in cash in the bank, no debt and trades at just seven times cash flows.

With the loss of a major customer in the mobile space, the company has decided to get out of the mobile business. Meanwhile, InfoSpace's search business is declining. That said, the company will still remain cash flow positive, and the search business is not disappearing. Given the balance sheet, as well as the funds invested in the stock, I believe the worst is baked into this name.

Hedge fund manager Seth Klarman is currently invested in InfoSpace. Klarman is known for writing the book Margin of Safety, which is out of print but sells for more than $600 on eBay. Check out for Klarman's holdings. The Jacob Internet Fund, with a five-year annualized return of 25%, is also invested in the stock. In a recent interview with The Financial Times, Ryan Jacob stated that he likes to have both value and growth plays in his Internet fund. InfoSpace looks like a little bit of both, assuming it can eventually turn around its search business.

I love companies that could make a comeback, and I believe all the ones on the "Whatever Happened To list I've compiled are candidates for such a comeback.

Stockpickr tip of the day: It's interesting to look at the recommendations displayed for various portfolios. For instance, take a look at this portfolio: Motorola(MOT Quote), Microsoft(MSFT Quote), Sirius Satellite Radio(SIRI Quote), streetTracks Gold Shares(GLD Quote) and NorthStar Realty Finance(NRF Quote).

Sirius is an interesting holding because it could suggest that a lot of the funds that own stocks like CMGI, InfoSpace, etc., are also betting on other speculative tech companies that could make comebacks. I had never even heard of NorthStar before, but it looks like an interesting diversification play when compared to the companies on the "Whatever Happened To" list.

The company has a steady chart and is on two lists that aren't normally speculative lists: Investor's Business Daily's top 10 dividend payers and the 9% Yield Club.

Recommendations are determined, roughly, by looking at a particular portfolio and then examining the 30,000 other portfolios in the Stockpickr system. We determine the portfolios that are most correlated to the portfolio we are looking at, and then find three stocks that are "most loved" by portfolios highly correlated with that portfolio, as well as two stocks that are a bit more speculative than are found in the most-correlated portfolios.

This results in five total recommendations. You can choose to get recommendations from all the portfolios in the system, just the professional portfolios, or just the do-it-yourself portfolios.

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At the time of publication, Altucher and/or his fund had no positions in stocks mentioned, although positions may change at any time.

James Altucher is a managing partner at Formula Capital, an alternative asset management firm that runs several quantitative-based hedge funds as well as a fund of hedge funds. He is also the author of Trade Like a Hedge Fund and Trade Like Warren Buffett. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Altucher appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.

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