Louisiana-Pacific: Low P/E and High Cash, But Commodity Driven (LPX)

A few things drew our attention to wood products company Louisiana-Pacific (LPX). First is what seemed to be an outrageously low valuation: a trailing P/E ratio of 6.61 and an EV/EBITDA ratio of 3.68 (Yahoo Finance).

The balance sheet is also interesting. It showed over $1.3 billion in cash and short term investments at year end 2005. With long term debt of “only