Sunday, September 10, 2006

Stretching the Net/Net Definition
We hope Ben Graham wouldn't take offense if we loosened up a bit, and took a gander at some "double net/nets"(that's our own Cheap Stocks term), or companies trading at less than two times their net current asset value. Afterall, we've already taken liberties with Ben's philosophy; he preferred companies trading at less than 2/3 of net current asset value, and we tend to focus on those trading below NCAV. Truth be told, it's slim pickings these days to find these companies (not unusual), but we'd thought it would be interesting to see what we could dig up at 2 times NCAV.

What we found was a list of about 300 companies, and below are the top 15 in terms of market cap. In the coming weeks, we'll profile what we believe to be the most interesting.

Company (Ticker)
Ingram Micro (IM)
Tech Data Corp (TECD)
Sycamore Networks (SCMR)
UTStarcom (SCMR)
USEC Inc (USU)
InfoSpace Inc (INSP)
Electro Scientific Industries (ESIO)
Exar Corp (EXAR)
LeapFrog Enterprises (LEAP)
Adaptec Inc (ADPT)
Utilicom Inc (ULCM)
Plug Power Inc (PLUG)
Cohu Inc (COHU)
Farmer Bros (FARM)
Portal Player Inc (PLAY)

Please keep in mind that we are not abandoning the typical formula we use to identify companies trading below their net current asset value. We just like to experiment from time to time. Companies trading at twice (or less) than their NCAV's could still be very cheap....or, they could be cigar butts.

*The author does not have a position in any of the stocks mentioned in this report. This is neither a recommendation to buy or sell this security. All information provided believed to be reliable and presented for information purposes only.

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