Under $10 Stocks From Renaissance Technologies

Last week I wrote an article on Jim Simons. His quantitative-based hedge fund Renaissance Technologies is on fire: Its Medallion Fund is up more than 50% in the first three quarters of 2007, according to a recent Bloomberg report.

Simons' team of mathematicians and statisticians use complex trading algorithms to help the firm pick cheap and undervalued stocks.

This week, Stockpickr has reviewed the stocks held by Renaissance and extracted the ones that meet the following criteria:

1. A stock price under $10.
2. Zero debt on the balance sheet.
3. Insider buying within the past three to four months.

First up is data storage company Iomega(IOM), which is involved in the creation of zip drives, external hard drives and USB flash drives. Currently, Iomega sports $70 million in cash and zero debt on its balance sheet. It also has seen 50% year-over-year earnings growth. Insiders have bought about $250,000 worth of shares since August. This is an enormous amount of stock considering Iomega's market cap.

Renaissance currently owns about 5 million shares of Iomega.

Also worth looking at is Sturm, Ruger & Co.(RGR), which is involved in the sale of firearms and precision investment casting within the U.S. Sturm Ruger has $65 million in cash and zero debt. Insiders have bought back roughly $300,000 worth of stock since the beginning of November. Sturm Ruger also has a short position of 20%.