Focusing on Five Big Caps

I ran a notorious value screen for companies with a market cap of over $10 billion and below $100 billion with a current price no greater than 5% above the yearly low. Some of the more notable names were Motorola (MOT), Starbucks (SBUX), Newmont Mining (NEM), Southwest Airlines (LUV), and Gold Fields Ltd (GFI).

click to enlarge

Motorola is the famous manufacturer of wireless products such as cell phones and network products. It recently has had issues with earnings due to struggles in the mobile device business. Motorola has had trouble replicating the success of its Razr phones and that has led to bad quarterly results. It also had a change in upper management with David Devonshire being replaced by Thomas J. Meredith as the CFO. Carl Icahn has also dabbled with Motorola. There are a lot of famous investors on the long side of Motorola such as Bill Miller, George Soros, Edward Lampert and David Dreman.

Starbucks is the world famous coffee company that everyone loves, including investors until recently. It has been growing, just not as fast as the market expected; even an in-line quarter can’t keep the stock up. The expectations that the market has set on this company are that even a slight growth slowdown will beat up the stock. There are some upbeat happenings, there has been a recent insider buy and George Soros is an investor.

Newport Mining and Gold Fields Ltd are both gold miners. They are both around 35% off their recent highs in early 2006. Even though gold prices are only 10% off their peak, both of these stocks have been significantly down since their early 2006 highs. They both pay a dividend of at least 1%. They are both trading at their 52wk lows. Newport Mining is owned by David Dreman and George Soros.

Southwest Airlines is the famous low-cost airline. It's 10% off its multi-year low of $13 a share. The recovering oil price has definitely affected its stock price negatively. Even though its earnings were in-line, its stock has been pressured recently due to slower than expected growth in the upcoming quarters by Wall Street analysts.

Disclosure: I don’t have a position in any of the companies listed.