How to Screen for Cash Value Stocks in a Bear Market

Bear markets are instances of uncertainty for buyers as the current market resets its parameters and choices to determine inventory values. Even though top-line development momentum and significant expectations are relished in bull marketplaces, it get replaced by tangible benefit and steadiness all through bear markets. The most tangible asset that a enterprise can have is money. In essential phrases, a inventory trading less than its dollars volume is perceived as undervalued. This can provide an upside on a recovery as nicely as security from slipping a great deal even further. When looking for investing or investing candidates, this can be a starting up place before applying any further more technological and fundamental assessment to identify if its ideal for your portfolio.

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Funds-For each-Share

The funds-per-share ordinarily tends to be a floor as considerably as a stock cost can fall. Theoretically, if a stock trades less than its dollars-for each-share value, you are finding the business enterprise for free. Essentially, there is ordinarily a dilemma with the operations or tactic that induced the offer-off in shares down below the funds benefit. In simple fact, in most circumstances, the fundamental stock is a speculator’s wager. Of program, lots of companies aren’t worthy of the paper the stock is printed on, but the cash helps make it practical. In addition, undervalued stocks can appeal to the notice of arbs and possible acquirers. It’s the perception of worth that will become a self-satisfying prophecy at instances.

How to Screen for CPS Value Stocks

This calls for utilizing a inventory screener that allows you to locate stocks trading at or under CPS as in “CPS>Stock Price” or a variable of Stock Value as a Ratio to Funds. You can discover a free of charge fundamental screener at Finviz.com. For case in point, a Selling price-to-Cash (PTC or P/C) ratio of in excess of 1 usually means the stock is buying and selling higher than the CPS. A PTC of around 2 implies the inventory is investing twice as considerably as the CPS. When scanning for CPS value, the setting really should be Selling price/Income (PTC) fewer than < 1.

Filtering Through P/C<1 Stocks

This scan will find numerous stocks that fit this formula. The key is to continue filtering down the candidates. Since liquidity is important, you can adjust the list to prioritize the highest daily trading volume. You can also filter by price/earnings (P/E) and keep adding to the filters to arrive at a handful before applying technical analysis. Stick to stocks that service the USA, so FX rates and volatility doesn’t apply. Avoid China names since the numbers can’t be verified. Additional filters can include positive sales growth and low long-term debt.

CPS Doesn’t Apply with Financials

It’s worth noting that financial stocks including banks, wealth management firms, insurers or REITs should be avoided when using the CPS valuations. This is largely because many times, the company is just holding the cash for clients or customers and is not technically theirs to spend.

Be Aware of the Sector Pressures and Debt

Some sectors may be under pressure and have depressed CPS values across the board. For example, airline stocks were crushed as an epicenter industry during the pandemic and continue to trade well below cash value. Therefore, it’s important to note whether certain sectors or industries are fundamentally under pressure as a group. The airline industry is known for tremendous debt, which is why shares have been trading under CPS values. The rare gems are stocks that show profitability (P/E) trading under its CPS (P/C<1).

Apply Fundamental Metrics

Once you find the handful of stocks that meet the criteria, then it’s a good idea to research them both fundamentally and apply technical analysis using charts. Acacia Research Corporation (NASDAQ: ACTG) stock trades at $5.02 versus its $12.94 cash-per-share. It’s profitable with a 5.7 P/E and nearly 7 million shares daily volume recently. It’s market cap is just above its sales level and shows positive EPS growth of 26.4%. It looks fundamentally undervalued.

Apply Technical Analysis to Find Opportunistic Pullback Levels

Using the rifle charts on the weekly and daily time frames provides a precision view of the landscape for ACTG stock. The weekly rifle chart bottomed near the $3.39 Fibonacci (fib) level before staging a rally to the weekly 50-period moving average (MA). The weekly 200-period MA support sits at $4.00. The weekly pup breakout has a rising 5-period MA support at $4.64 and 15-period MA support rising at $4.47. The weekly stochastic formed a mini pup through the 70-band. The weekly market structure low (MSL) buy triggered on the $4.30 breakout. The daily rifle chart is forming a Bollinger Band (BBs) expansion as upper BBs rising at $4.76. The daily 5-period MA is rising at $4.76 and 15-period MA at $4.56. The daily stochastic has bounced through the 70-band. Prudent investors can watch for opportunistic pullback levels at the $4.69 fib, $4.40 fib, $3.83 fib, $3.56 fib, and the $3.39 fib level. Upside trajectories range from the $9.09 fib level up towards the $12.94 cash-per-share value level.