Actions américaines : les soldes à Wall Street ?

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Actions américaines : les soldes à Wall Street ?

Ci-dessous l'article d'aujourd'hui rédigé par Brett Arendt dans le Wall Street Journal : bilan des opérations, de très belles sociétés présentent des valorisations faibles (PER inférieurs à 10, rendement supérieur à 4%, dette inférieure à 2/3 de la valeur d'actif, résultat d'exploitation supérieur à 2 fois le service de la dette).

Bonne lecture


The Christmas season – such as it is this year – has now begun and Americans are hunting for bargains.

If anyone is interested, there's a sale on over at the New York Stock Exchange. It's like Marshall's in there: Everything's half price or less.

(That includes stock in TJX, parent company of Marshall's).

Are shares cheap?

Every so often I run a stock market screen, looking for companies that might be bargains.

This time around, because everyone tells me the world is coming to an end, I set tough parameters.

I only considered shares that cost less than 10 times the forecast earnings for the year ahead. That's pretty cheap. But I don't trust those earnings forecasts too well: I think they are likely to come down, in some cases a long way, when analysts wake from their long slumber. So I only included shares that cost less than 10 times last year's actual earnings as well.

I wanted shares paying big fat dividend yields: At least 4%, preferably more.

Sure, those dividends may come down, along with everything else. But at least you're starting at a decent level. And I ruled out sky-high dividends: Those are usually a warning sign.

A cheap share isn't much use if the company goes bust, so I screened out companies where total debts were more than two-thirds the value of the assets. And I only considered companies with at least two times interest cover: In other words, companies whose earnings before interest and taxes were at least twice annual interest expense. That gives you at least some cushion in a downturn.

And because really small companies tend to be the most vulnerable, I also ruled out companies with a market value of less than $1 billion.

As I said, these are pretty tough screens.

Yet nearly 100 shares still passed, including a lot of very well known names.

They include drug companies like Pfizer, Merck and Eli Lilly.

And tobacco giants Altria and Reynolds American.

Industrial stocks like Dow Chemical, Alcoa and International Paper. Financials such as Capital One, Allstate, and the NYSE Euronext itself. Retailers like J.C. Penney and Macy's. Consumer goods manufacturers ranging from Mattel and Harley-Davidson to Newell Rubbermaid, Whirlpool and Black & Decker.

The list also includes AT & T, mining company Freeport-McMoran, utility American Electric Power, cruise ship giant Carnival, oil driller Diamond Offshore, and food company ConAgra.

Many of these firms, including GE, are indicating dividend yields of 8%. That means that even if they end up halving the payout, investors will still earn more than the paltry 3.6% currently paid on 30-year Treasurys.

Of course there is no guarantee a company will pay you anything. Nonetheless, if anyone is looking to buy some stocks this Christmas, there are plenty of brand names in the bargain bins.