Ryan Freund

35 Stocks That Ben Graham Would Like Here

Many of the stocks are similar. Ben Graham advocated long term holding, so I doubt any meaningful information can be gleaned by comparing the prices. But I will keep doing this each month and it will be possible to track it through some backtracking.

35 Stocks That Ben Graham Would Like Here

FXTrader -

You hit the nail on the head. That's exactly right. The screener simply provides a starting point. In my opinion, anything related to banks/housing/cars/ins... should be discarded immediately due to the issues surrounding credit.

I would look for high cash, low debt companies with a moderate dividend to provide a safety net against losses. I would also be interested in any stocks that have significant global operations, as those are probably more resistant to a poor US economy than most.

35 Stocks That Ben Graham Would Like Here

Oh and User# - I would steer clear of FMD. It's too intertwined with the credit crunch and could very well be facing very serious problems.

35 Stocks That Ben Graham Would Like Here

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Increasing the P/B and decreasing the years of earnings growth in the search gives more potentials. Personally, I like more potentials and will do my DD from the list. See, a company with a 1.5 price/book could very well be a fantastic investment, and I don't want to shut them out. Intangible assets are much higher than they were in Graham's days, and the price/book staying at 1.2 - as Graham suggested - cuts out some wonderful companies.

As for the 5 year earnings, rather than 10 year earnings, I think you have a fantastic point FXTrader. I will take that into consideration.

Flatman - this screener was derived 100% from Graham's book, "The Intelligent Investor," and I don't know how the results could be different. Unless, of course, Forbes was using different criteria.

Thanks again everyone.