Benjamin Graham - Known as the Father of Value Investing, wrote the Intelligent Investor. Here follow a selection of stock screening strategies that we have modelled based on the writings of or about Benjamin Graham. These strategies are not endorsed by the author.
UK Data
This strategy is one of Ben Graham's most famous bargain stock strategies aiming to find stocks trading for less than their liquidation value. The idea is to find stocks trading at such a cheap price that you could buy the whole company and sell off all the assets at a profit with near minimal risk. It is a simplistic screen which just looks for stocks where the market cap is less than the so called 'Net Net Working Capital' (defined as Cash and short-term investments + (75% of accounts receivable) + (50% of inventory) - All Liabilities). The formula is very conservative in estimating the value of inventory and receivables due to the likelihood that not all will be collectible in a firesale. About such stocks Graham wrote: ‘ No proprietor or majority holder would think of selling what he owned at so ridiculously low a figure…In various ways practically all these bargain issues turned out to be profitable and the average annual result proved much more remunerative than most other investments’. This is not a strategy for the faint-hearted due to the high risk companies that qualify. Graham sought safety from individual bankruptcy risk by diversifying his portfolio with a large numbers of companies – he suggested 30. more »
This is a deep value screen based on Ben Graham's writings. It is a simplistic screen which just looks for stocks where the market cap is less than net current asset value. It is not to be confused with his more involved Enterprising Investor and Defensive Investor criteria which have been modelled separately. As a reminder, NCAV = Current Assets - Total Liabilities. That's a stringent requirement, since most companies have negative NCAVs but Graham was looking for firms trading so cheap that there was little danger of falling further. In addition, Graham would have requested a margin of safety of at least 33%, so his P/NCAV threshold would have been 0.66. Graham argued such companies were typically priced at significant discounts to the likely value that stockholders could receive in an actual sale or liquidation of the entire corporation. Because of the kind of unloved/troubled companies it generates, this is not a strategy for the faint-hearted. Graham sought safety from individual bankruptcy risk by diversifying his portfolio with a large numbers of companies – he suggested 30. more »
A hardcore intrinsic value investing screen based on buying with a significant Margin of Safety but not as demanding as Graham's set of Defensive Screen criteria. Despite the name, this is not a growth screen. Graham felt defensive investors should confine their holdings to the shares of large, prominent/important, and conservatively financed companies with long histories of profitable operations. In contrast, entreprising investors could expand their universe outside of these “important” companies. He suggests looking at i) the relatively unpopular large company, ii) “special situations”, and iii) “bargain issues”. more »
A demanding intrinsic value-based screen designed for less experienced investors which focuses on “important” companies with long histories of profitable operations and strong financial condition. Graham felt defensive investors should confine their holdings to the shares of large, prominent, and conservatively financed companies with long histories of profitable operations. By this, he meant a firm of substantial size and with a leading position in its respective industry. Additionally, Graham sought companies with: 1) Strong financial position (based on the current ratio & debt to working capital). 2) 20 years of uninterrupted dividends 3) No negative earnings in the last 10 years & a 10-year annual earnings growth rate of at least 3% 4) A reasonable price-earnings ratio & a moderately low ratio of price to assets more »
