Warren Buffett's Top Value Stocks
One of the classic ways of valuing a stock is calculating its
price-to-earnings ratio, which measures the price of the stock in relation to the company's net income per share. The lower the P/E ratio, the better the buy.
The P/E ratio is used along with other financial metrics to determine the valuation of a company compared with its competitors and the overall industry. Because Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors, Stockpickr decided that it would be useful to review all of his stocks and break out the
stocks with the lowest P/E ratios
.
The Warren Buffett stock with the lowest P/E is
USG
(USG)
, a building materials distributor with a P/E of 8.8. The company is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings today. The stock, which happens to have the highest short ratio of all of Buffett's stocks -- 13.7 -- has a P/E-to-growth (PEG) ratio of 2.6.
USG is also owned by the "other Oracle of Omaha,"
, who manages the Weitz mutual fund family, which follows a value-disciplined approach to investing. Weitz also owns
UnitedHealth Group
(UNH) - Get Report
, which has a P/E of 15, and insurer
American International Group
(AIG) - Get Report
, which has a P/E of 10.6.
Another low-P/E stock that Buffett holds is
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
, with a P/E of 10. The company just last week reported a 32% drop in third-quarter earnings on a revenue drop of 12%, due to unfavorable results of its investment bank unit and higher consumer credit costs. The stock has a PEG of 1.4 and a yield of 5.1%.
BofA is also a favorite of
, the famous contrarian
Forbes
columnist. He is also manager of the Dreman Large Cap Value Fund, which has generated an average annual return of 17%, and the Dreman Small Cap Value Fund, which has returned 16.5% a year, on average, for the past 16 years.
Dreman also likes tobacco giant
Altria Group
(MO) - Get Report
, which has a P/E of 14, and
Freddie Mac
( FRE), which has a forward P/E of 10.8.
Torchmark
(TMK)
is another low-P/E stock that Buffett also owns; it offers a P/E of 11.7. This life and health insurance company just reported a 10.2% earnings-per-share increase and a 3.1% increase in revenue. The stock has a PEG of 1.3 and a yield of 0.80%.
Torchmark is in the portfolio of
, a $13.5 billion investment partnership that specializes in value investments. Tweedy Brown also owns shares of financial services firm
Lloyds TSB Group
(LYG) - Get Report
, which sports a P/E of 10, and
SK Telecom
(SKM) - Get Report
, a South Korean wireless company with a P/E of 13.7.
Check out Stockpickr for the rest of the
Top Warren Buffett Stocks by P/E Ratio
as well as for the entire
, which includes his long-held positions such as
Coca-Cola
(KO) - Get Report
.
At the time of publication, Altucher and/or his fund had no positions in stocks mentioned, although positions may change at any time.
James Altucher is president of Stockpickr LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of TheStreet.com and part of its network of Web properties, and a managing partner at Formula Capital, an alternative asset management firm that runs a fund of hedge funds. He is also a weekly columnist for
The Financial Times
and the author of
Trade Like a Hedge Fund
,
Trade Like Warren Buffett
and
SuperCa$h
. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Altucher appreciates your feedback;
to send him an email.
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