“Undervalued Stock of the Month — October”

by Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe | October 25, 2007 7:36 pm

Well, I referred obliquely to this one in my writeup of a few days ago, but thought I’d take a closer look and see if I was right in my assumptions.

Turns out, I was (for once, at least).

The undervalued stock of the month in April[1], according to the Half Priced Stocks service, was Getty Images, the big stock photography firm. It was teased as a dominant player in the digital photography market, poised to grow in strength as they acquire competitors and enjoy the benefits of a world awash in digital cameras.

The undervalued stock of the month in October, according to the same people, was again Getty Images (GYI). And again, the ad was pretty much word for word the same, at least in parts.

Now, I’m not against persistence — I do like to see advisers who stick by their ideas with some conviction. But it’s certainly starting to look like even if GYI is a bargain now, it certainly was not one, by most peoples’ assessment, back in April.

You see, the shares are right around $27 now. The last time they were called “undervalued,” they were right around $50. And no, the stock has not split.

So, is this a case of a decent stock getting beaten down, and an adviser taking his lumps and urging you to average down, confident that the shares will turn around? Or is it that the marketers saw that their recommendation got a good response rate in April and they recycled the same ad?

Personally, I certainly find Getty more compelling now than I did the last time I wrote about them in April. They are certainly cheap, at least on paper, right now — the PE is around 11, and analysts are projecting 10% earnings growth, so that’s reasonable (if they’re right). I think their new music licensing initiative is a little silly and off-focus, but they also just inked a deal with Interpublic and they certainly are busy putting photographers to work around the world for the major news and advertising publishers.

Certainly, folks who follow IBD and refuse to buy a stock on the decline, or to average down, would want to stay far away from this one. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth a closer look … just that there’s some kind of reason out there why it has fallen 50% in a few months, and it might behoove you to figure out what that reason is … and whether your logic can overcome the market’s in this case. It looks like the main culprit for the fall was a minor shortfall in earnings announced in August, accompanied by a more severe cut in earnings expectations due to a competitive pricing environment and some charges for layoffs — so I guess we’ll learn a little bit more about how those reduced expectations are being met next week, they release earnings on November 1.

Oh, and to give them some credit — this group’s pick of the undervalued stock of the month in May was Broadcom at $31[2], which they said was 27% undervalued. If you took them at their word and sold when it got fully valued, over $40, you’d be quite happy now thanks to the huge runup earlier this month. Of course, if you hadn’t sold at that point you’d be sad, with the share price back down to just about a 10% gain at $34 thanks to this week’s disappointing earnings report.

Best of luck.

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Endnotes:
  1. undervalued stock of the month in April: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2007/04/undisputed-leader-in-digital.html
  2. undervalued stock of the month in May was Broadcom at $31: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2007/05/mays-undervalued-stock-of-month.html

Source URL: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/half-priced-stocks/undervalued-stock-of-month-october/


6 responses to ““Undervalued Stock of the Month — October””

  1. TriCities Roger says:

    Speaking of Getty Images, you might be interested in some of the recommendations marketed by Morningstar Growth Investor, as penned by Toan Tran. He hyped Getty some months ago … along with other dead-in-the-water goodies such as Ruth’s Chris. He totally missed two superb growth sectors, both of which have treated me well: Nitrate producers (MOS, AGU, POT, MEOH) who are benefitting from the biofuels boom; and infrastructure contractors (BKR, JEC) who are already benefitting from the funding being allocated to highway and bridge reconstruction after the Minnesota collapse. He also missed VMW’s IPO and subsequent 2.1x runup in price. These three profitable sectors / individual companies were all evident to anyone willing to study the correlation between news stories, government-funded trends, and industry fundamentals. Needless to say, I have let my Morningstar Growth Investor subscription expire!

  2. Anonymous says:

    WHO KNOWS WHAT THIS IS???? [pasted-in follows]
    Right now, he’s alerting his Emerging Capital Report readers to an overlooked tech company that could increase in value as much as 22 times over.

    Nowhere else in the investment publishing world will you find this rare opportunity — the way he sees it — a technical revolution is underway.

    In fact, this “last mile” revolution is described to be so life-changing, it’ll rival the coming of the railroad!

    You’ll learn everything you need to know when you read the message below. But you’ll need to hurry.

    Right now, we’re offering you a way to join Jonathan’s Emerging Capital Report and lock in the lowest price we will ever offer.

    You must act before midnight November 5 to accept your $500. All the details follow…

    To your wealth,

    Joe Schriefer
    Publisher, Agora Financial

    The “Last Mile” Revolution
    Has Begun…

    In July, an inside deal between two tech giants paved the way for an unknown company to break the barrier depriving 78 million Americans of high-speed Internet.

    Your first shot at high-flying technology profits since the 90s starts with this $4 stock…

    But you only have until Midnight on Monday November 5th to get all the details — and a complimentary $500 to start buying your shares

    Dear Friend,

    On July 19th, telecom behemoth Sprint-Nextel and wireless Web phenom Clearwire inked a letter of intent to join forces and blanket a substantial percentage of the U.S. with a high-speed wireless broadband network.

    These tech giants intend to start bringing most of America’s major metro and suburban areas high-speed Web access before the end of this year — reaching full capacity by New Year’s Eve 2008…

    Whole cities — including parks, stadiums, bars, historic districts and waterfronts — will now be covered by fast, powerful wireless, microwave Internet access.

  3. Bubble_Fool says:

    What is ICOD?

    What is this $4 stock?

    ” On July 19th, telecom behemoth Sprint-Nextel and wireless Web phenom Clearwire inked a letter of intent to join forces and blanket a substantial percentage of the U.S. with a high-speed wireless broadband network.

    These tech giants intend to start bringing most of America’s major metro and suburban areas high-speed Web access before the end of this year — reaching full capacity by New Year’s Eve 2008…

    Whole cities — including parks, stadiums, bars, historic districts and waterfronts — will now be covered by fast, powerful wireless, microwave Internet access.

    No more squeezing in at the noisy local café or bookstore just to tap into a Wi-Fi hotspot.

    You’ll work, write, e-mail, Web-surf, check stock prices and sports scores from anywhere in town…

    Yes, life-changing and fantastic, for sure. But what’s potentially even more life-changing for you is what these two mega-players didn’t realize they were handing you:

    This letter of intent accidentally created one of the biggest opportunities for individual investors to profit from the Internet since the “Roaring 90s”

  4. Bubble_Fool says:

    AIRN ???

    Another possible (Not the actual one they are targeting, but one that might make out on the “Deal”) is ALVR

    See:
    http://seekingalpha.com/article/41596-sprint-nextel-clearwire-deal-should-fire-up-alvarion-airspan

  5. Bubble_Fool says:

    I’ll leave this with the Gumshoe expert. What I neglected is that this company is NOT an equipment supplier, but an ISP provider in the US Rural Market (W/ Wimax capability). Where does that lead us to?

    Towerstream? (TWER)
    KeyON? (KEYN)

    Help, Gumshoe!!

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