" When I watch the stock tape I see many overpriced stocks based on endless growth expectations. Give me a good solid company stock that should be trading much higher based on future earnings forecast. Give me a stock like Whirlpool, symbol WHR".

Dow Jones Industrial Average 25790.35 (UP) Week ending 08-24-2018
S & P 500 Average - 2874.69

There is nothing very exciting about washing machines , dishwashers, refrigerators and microwave ovens. (Unless you are building a new kitchen or house.)

            Whirlpool, (symbol NYSE:  WHR, Price $127.15) is very good at making money selling this consumer goods equipment. 

Whirlpool Corporation is the world's leading major home appliance company, with approximately $21 billion in annual sales, 92,000 employees and 70 manufacturing and technology research centers in 2017. The company markets Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag, Consul, Brastemp, Amana, Bauknecht, Jenn-Air, Indesit and other major brand names in nearly every country throughout the world. 

I believe that the stock of WHR should be trading much higher than its current price based on the earnings going forward. It is running into some short term turbulence here based on the cost rise created by the steel tariffs and because of a shortage of truck drivers. This has caused the stock price to be off by 24.62% YTD year to date. So the whole market capitalization of the company is only about $8.78 billion dollars right now with 69 million shares outstanding. The company bought back shares at a dutch auction in April at around $158.25 per share. I believe they are going to be buying back more shares but I could not find a source to confirm that. Sales have been rising by 3% a year, but in Asia sales rose by 14.5%. 

Here is what I am looking at. The earnings per share for this year are projected at $14.38 per share according to Barron's and CBS MarketWatch.  Next year earnings are projected at $16.63 per share. That is a forward PE of 7.66.  The company is also trading at a Price to Sales ratio of 0.41.  I feel these earnings give you a good margin of safety.

I believe that this stock should trade at between $180.00 to $230.00 per share. I am not sure how all the hotshot analyst are missing this, but they seem to be  blinded by their "Revenue Growth" glasses? WHR has some debt also,  but it seems very manageable.

This company also pays a $4.60 dividend each year, (3.62% dividend), which seems to be very safe.  

I say to buy into it in the next 45 days. ( I own it here).  September and October for many years have traded as down months, so you may be able to get it even cheaper is this time frame.

I consider this a 2 year to 3 year investment, so don't get impatient with it.

   I told my friend to sign up for her 401k at work and she said "there's no way I can run that far."

       (I saw the above on a twitter comment on Tobias Carlisle's - Greenbackd - Value investing website) .

Let's make some money on Whirlpool!  

Freewilly

"The summer moves on and growth stocks continue to gain momentum. I will still stick with my value picks though and reduce my downside risk. I like COF, T, and CCK here.

Dow Jones Industrial Average 25,463.55  (UP) Week ending 08-03-2018

I am still simmering about that CEO the other week that sold almost a Billion shares of his personal company shares of stock at an average of $210 dollars per share and then a week later announced bad news on his earnings call. It was all "legal" of course somehow because the shares had been pre-registered to sell ahead of time, but it was certainly shady. This CEO saved $38 Billion dollars when the stock dropped from the $210 range down to $174 on the earnings call and forward guidance.  Oh and >>>  It was the largest loss of market capitalization of a company in one day in the history of the stock market. 

It tells me that the CEO of this growth company does not have the best interest of his stockholders on his mind and is only out for himself. This also points out the hazard of owning growth stocks, where 4 times a year at the earnings call, you may hit a land mine and have your portfolio hit with a large sudden loss. (In my case it was a large long term paper gain that got erased.) 

All I will say is buyer beware and refer to Phillip Fisher's Point # 15  in his book "Common Stocks and Uncommon profits" : Point 15 -- "Does the company have a management of unquestionable integrity?"  I think we now have our answer to that. We learn greatly in life and investing from our mistakes.

Well, now on to more pleasant thoughts of low risk value stocks. 

AT&T  (Symbol T, $32.37) Insiders have just purchase $8 million dollars in shares. Time Warner coming into the fold makes this a cash generating powerhouse media and telecom company. 

  Capital One Financial Corp.  (Symbol COF, $96.68)  This family run financial powerhouse just won the Walmart credit card business from it's competitor. I like that as a catalyst for the stock to trade up from here. 

Crown Holdings Inc. (Symbol CCK, $45.40)
Earnings are gushing at this designer of packaging which sports a 66.80 Return of Equity. I always knew there had to be money in those bottle caps. Insiders at this one also love the stock. 

Back to the normal font.  I would buy all of the above companies right here in increments of  1/2 or two purchases in case the market takes an overall dip. 

I wish we got to see the stock certificates of the companies we own like in the old days instead of in street accounts. We never get to see the great lithography. I am a paper guy.

Hope you have a great week and that business is good for you.

Sincere regards,

Freewilly