SigmaTron Spends Its Margin Of Safety

A couple of weeks ago we saw a company that was trading at a deep discount to its net current assets lever up to buy a company for more than the acquirer's own market cap! A reader alerted me to another net-net that just did the same thing!

Value Fail: Qiao Xing Mobile

This fail should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the name, but only recently was Qiao Xing Mobile somewhat officially outed as a fraud. Though I sold my shares months ago when the hints of fraud started coming out, I held off on this post-mortem in the hopes that this company turned out to be one of the good ones. Alas, it doesn't look that way, making Qiao Xing the latest addition to this site's Value Fail page.

Overstock.com Oversold?

Shares of Overstock.com (OSTK) are held by value investor extraordinaires Prem Watsa and Francis Chou. But the stock has languished as of late, having lost 2/3's of its value since 2010 and half of its value over the last year. As a result, you have a chance to get in on this stock at better prices than have these wise gentlemen.

George "Not That Much" Risk

George Risk (RSKIA) has almost as much cash as it does market cap (no payday loans required here!). Furthermore, this maker of burglar alarm components is profitable and stayed profitable throughout the recession, despite the huge pressure (much of which still remains) on the housing industry. There isn't much more for me to add about this company, however, as it has been written up concisely yet eloquently at these fine sites:

Rational Walk
Whopper Investments
Oddball Stocks

Thinking, Fast And Slow: Chapters 10, 11 and 12

Nobel Prize recipient Daniel Kahneman authors this book on the behavioural sciences. Combining his own lifelong research with that of many other leaders in the field, he discusses some of the systematic mental glitches we experience that cause us to stray from rationality, often completely unbeknownst to us. Thinking, Fast and Slow is full of illustrative experiments and examples that you can even try on yourself!

Thinking, Fast and Slow: Chapters 7, 8 and 9

Nobel Prize recipient Daniel Kahneman authors this book on the behavioural sciences. Combining his own lifelong research with that of many other leaders in the field, he discusses some of the systematic mental glitches we experience that cause us to stray from rationality, often completely unbeknownst to us. Thinking, Fast and Slow is full of illustrative experiments and examples that you can even try on yourself!

'Sup, Dude!

Superior Industries (SUP) designs and manufactures wheels for car, truck and SUV manufacturers in North America. But while auto sales have bounced back in a big way from the depths of the recession, shares of Superior are in the dumps, near a 52-week low. But this is a company trading for just $430 million despite net cash of $193 million and free cash flow of $50 million last year alone!