Situation: “Growth at a reasonable price (GARP)" is an equity investment strategy that seeks to combine tenets of both growth investing and value investing to select individual stocks.” Different analysts use different metrics (and management assessments) to guesstimate favorable returns. Peter Lynch originated the concept and highlighted the usefulness of one ratio: Price/Earnings:Growth, commonly referred to as PEG. “Earnings” reference Earnings per Share (EPS) for the Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) period. “Growth” references an estimate of growth in EPS over the next 5 years. Yahoo Finance publishes the PEG ratio for each public company under Valuation Measures (see Column AH in the Table). The PEG ratio is kept up to date by Thomson Reuters. Peter Lynch is arguably the greatest stock-picker of all time. My interest in investing started through reading his books, which are practical down-to-earth primers. So, his reliance on PEG carries some gravitas. The basic idea is that a stock’s price ought to approximate the rate at which the company’s earnings grow (PEG = 1.0). That rarely happens in the real world but some companies come close (see Column AH in the Table).
Mission: Look at the 23 A-rated non-financial high-yielding stocks in the S&P 100 Index and highlight the 9 that have 5-yr PEG numbers no higher than 2.5.
Execution: see Table.
Administration: A-rated stocks are those that have:
a) an above market dividend yield (see portfolio of Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund ETF - VYM),
b) positive Book Value,
c) positive earnings (TTM),
d) an S&P bond rating of A- or better,
e) an S&P stock rating of B+/M or better, and
f) a 20+ year trading history.
Bottom Line: Merck (MRK), Target (TGT), Intel (INTC), Comcast (CMCSA), and Lockheed Martin (LMT) have the overall highest quality among stocks on this list (see Column AL in the Table). INTC and CMCSA are also Value Stocks, meaning that their price (50-day moving average) is less than twice their Graham Number (see Column AC) and their 7-year P/E is no higher than 25 (see Column AE).
Risk Rating: 6 (where 10-yr US Treasury Notes = 1, S&P 500 Index = 5, and gold bullion = 10).
Full Disclosure: I dollar-average into MRK, PFE and INTC, and also own shares of TGT and CMCSA.
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