As promised below are some excerpts from another CAPS screening article on Motley Fool. As I mentioned before my goal is to prove that you can beat the market by using free internet tools instead of expensive research. So far so good- 80% of my picks are in the money...
The TV has probably informed you on many occasions that all "manufacturing is dead in America" -- and that soon, we won't even have any factories left here in the United States. With the Big Three automakers' plea for a huge government bailout still dominating the news, these claims will likely only get louder in the short run. But surprisingly enough, according to a 2006 report by the National Association of Manufacturers, U.S. manufacturing all on its own would still represent the world's eighth-largest economy!
Producing tangible goods instead of trading financial papers has somehow become both lower-paid and less desirable for American workers. Very few newly minted Ivy League MBAs now consider Ford or GM a dream destination; instead, they spend most of their job-hunting efforts trying to land the corner office on Wall Street.
But with the giant stimulus package coming out, and the with the U.S. dollar still relatively weak compared to its peak levels of 2000 to 2001, the tide seems to be turning away from less tangible sectors like investment banking, and toward companies that actually make and sell goods. This transition won't happen overnight, but we might all be surprised one day to find "production manager" as high on an MBA's wish list as "investment banker" is today
Specifically, the following screen sought:
* Sector: Industrial goods
* Top CAPS ratings of four or five stars
* Market cap of $150 million to $50 billion
* Low debt/equity ratios of 0 to 0.5 times
* EPS Growth rate (last 3 years) > 10%
* Four-week price change of more than 1%
Six names have made the cut:
Obviously this is not in any way a recommendation but rather simply an example of how to use the free tools out there to generate ideas.
Stay safe out there, skepticalcapitalist@gmail.com
