I wanted to clearly establish the importance of a comprehensive fundamental analysis before an investment decision is made. However, determining fair value from the perspective of the right market price to pay to buy a stock is a function of applying the appropriate PE ratio to reported earnings, and the recognition that, long-term rates of return are going to be a function of the companys earnings. Finally, my objective was to provide, conclusive and undeniable evidence that this theory actually works under real-world conditions. Fair market value is clearly a function of earnings.

Investors should be careful and willing to always run the numbers out to their logical conclusions. But, it all starts with knowing what you are buying (investing in) in the first place. True investors, like Peter Lynch, and many of the other renowned investing greats such as Phil Fischer, Warren Buffett, etc., all invest as owners in businesses with a focus on the strength of the business behind the stocks they buy. Therefore, these investor greats are always buying the earnings power of the respective businesses they are investing in, relative to their goals and objectives.

We believe that Oracle Corp. is just one of many technology titans that we believe the market is mispricing. Furthermore, we believe part of that stems from the general pessimism that has created the so-called flight to safety get out of equities. Pessimism thrives on uncertainty; and one of the main attributes of technology is uncertainty. We believe that investors seeking maximum capital appreciation at reasonable levels of risk might do well to take a hard look at not only Oracle, but the technology sector in general.

A close examination of the earnings and price correlated graphs, coupled with the historic valuations that the market has applied to Nike shares, it becomes clear and obvious that Nike shares are overpriced today. Even with its high expected future earnings growth, the headwind of such overvaluation seems likely to make it extremely difficult to achieve any acceptable long-term rate of return. On the other hand, its also obvious that the market has decided to price Nike at todays rich valuation, and therefore, its at least possible that it can continue to do so.

We believe that the Fastenal Company is an extremely high-quality stock with a very bright future. Nevertheless, we feel that the current valuation the market is placing on their shares is not only higher than their fundamentals justify, but also seem excessive in light of the valuations that the market is generally applying to other businesses. Consequently, we believe that shareholders would be prudent to either sell their shares or at least take some of their profits off the table. The stock has had a great run over the last three years but valuation now appears to be excessive.

There are two primary reasons for writing this particular article at this particular time. First of all, weve seen a running debate regarding whether McDonalds (MCD) is fairly valued or overvalued at todays valuation levels. Second, weve been challenged to write articles that were depicting full value or overvaluation because we have typically only written articles on undervalued selections. We believe that because McDonalds had such a strong run in calendar year 2011, that many people believe that it now must be overvalued after rising so much.

Becton Dickinson & Co. is a blue-chip dividend growth stock that is on sale. Becton Dickinson is also a Dividend Aristocrat and Dividend Champion, that Value Line Investment Survey has awarded high scores for financial strength, price stability, earnings predictability and price growth persistence and a low beta of .65. The company has shown great persistence and strength through the last two recessions, and we believe that estimates for future growth are well reasoned and well defined.

Primary reason this is happening is because the market was grossly undervaluing this company shares. Consequently, a piece of good news stimulated an incredible 30% advance in one single trading day. Common sense would tell us that the intrinsic value of a business, even a small business like Net1 UEPS Technologies, could not logically change by a magnitude of over 30% that quickly. Unless of course, it was through a merger, that increased the size and the value of the business by that much. The win of a contract would be unlikely to have such an impact.

This is the third and final article of a series of articles we have prepared on dividend paying stocks with a history and legacy of increasing their dividends each year. Our first article covered Dividend Champions, dividend paying stocks with a history of increasing every year for 25 years. Our second article covered Contenders, companies that have increased their dividend every year for 10-24 years. This final article in the series will cover Challengers, companies that increased their dividend every year for a minimum of five, to up to nine consecutive years.

With interest rates hovering near all-time lows, investors needing income are faced with very limited choices. The traditional high yield available from bonds and other fixed income vehicles are no longer available to meet the needs of retirees needing income to live off. Moreover, it is almost a certainty that todays low yields are not adequate enough to fight inflation. Consequently, there is a growing investor interest in dividend paying common stocks, especially those that have a long record of increasing their dividend every year.

We are going to start the new year off by looking at Wal-Mart which we believe is a blue-chip growth and dividend income selection that can be purchased at a sound and attractive valuation. We believe it is currently fairly valued. Therefore, it represents a very attractive candidate for the long-term investor interested in above-average capital appreciation, with an attractive dividend yield that is greater than the 10-year Treasury bond yield and potentially growing at double-digit rates.The company represents an ideal long-term buy-and-hold investment for the prudent fundamental investor.

We believe that based on earnings, 2012 is starting out with the stock market undervalued. We believe in the long-term ownership of great businesses purchased at sound and attractive valuations. Consequently, we view the stock market as merely the store that we shop at in order to buy the businesses we want to own.

Investors have been fleeing US equities at unprecedented levels. Yet, I believe there is compelling evidence that suggests that this may be the best opportunity to invest in high-quality U.S. common stocks that we have seen in many years. The list of 100 stocks presented in this article represents only a sampling of the many companies that are selling at valuations which are lower than their fundamentals justify. The only logical reason that I can come up with for this, is extreme pessimism.

With the amount of volatility seen in the equity markets today, many people seem to believe that the old proven practices of investing in solid businesses for the long run no longer apply. But its important to remember that there is a significant distinction between true investing and speculating. And its even more important to recognize that the level of risk taken by speculators is significantly greater than the amount of risk assumed by investors.

Within each challenge there has also been accompanying opportunity.And in most cases, the opportunities tend to dwarf the risks. The opportunities that we believe our recent challenges are bringing us are unnecessarily low valuations on some of our highest-quality companies.Yet, it is a fact that investors are flocking to bonds in droves at precisely a time when the risk of owning bonds is perhaps the greatest it has ever been. Most investors want to defy the cardinal rule of investing-buy low, sell high.

On November 14 Liz Ann Sonders, Senior VP and Chief Investment Strategist for Charles Schwab & Co. prepared a report that focuses on the stock markets micro opportunity. The following excerpts from Sonders report highlights several reasons supporting a rational shift in investors attitudes towards optimism. We will intersperse our own commentary among these excerpts in order to emphasize some of our key points. Our objective in sharing this information, is to support our thesis that common stocks are on sale today and, therefore, all the pessimism is more than likely already priced in.

This is the third in a series of articles that have been designed to provide investors greater insights into the proper understanding and utilization of the PE ratio as a valuation measurement tool. With this iteration were going to look at Aflac to identify significant undervaluation. The first article in this series looked at Amazon as an example of overvaluation. Our second article looked at SCANA Corp. and Darden Restaurant Group as examples of fairly valued companies; however, we further introduced the concept of the earnings growth rate as a relative component of future return.

This article is the second in a series of articles designed to elaborate on the proper utilization and understanding of the PE ratio as an important investing metric. Our first article in this series looked at how the PE ratio could be used to determine overvaluation. With this article we are going to review two companies where each is fairly valued and each has similar current PE ratios. Moreover, both companies offer yields above 3 % which is greater than is available on the 30-year Treasury bond (current yield 30-year Treasury bond 3.02%).

We believe Amazon potentially has a bright and prosperous long-term future. Therefore, if we could find Amazon.com Inc. priced at a sensible valuation, we would be motivated to include it into our growth portfolios. But since we fervently believe in the sage advice that price is what you pay, value is what you get, we do not believe in investing in even the best of companies when they are being overpriced by the market. When the PE ratio is properly applied, we believe that it will protect the longterm investor from making the obvious mistake of paying too much for even the best company.

The stock market has been pummeling Netflix (NFLX), assumingly based on significantly lowered expectations of future earnings results. However, the purpose of this article is not to provide a comprehensive analysis of Netflix the business. The purpose of this article is to focus on the important lesson of valuation that Netflix is currently teaching those with the foresight and an open mind to learning. Therefore, we would like to point out that most of Netflixs poor stock price performance can be attributed to the stock becoming overvalued starting in the summer of 2010.

This has been the fourth article in a series dealing with the relative valuations of the so-called stock markets, where the first looked at the S&P 500, and the last three covered the 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average. The principle idea behind this series is not that the markets are currently fairly valued to even undervalued based on historical precedent. Instead, we are discussing the valuation of the markets based on the intrinsic values of the underlying companies that make up the markets. In short, based on fundamentals, we believe that many quality companies are on sale today.

Any way you slice it, Apple booked a great quarter. You can even say an awesome quarter. 99.9% of every publically traded company would give its proverbial right arm for a quarter like Apple had. Apple stock should not be down on this news, it should be up. In fact, based on their incredible past, present and future earnings power we believe that Apple is extremely undervalued. In our opinion, Apples numbers support a better valuation than the market is currently awarding it, based on the fundamentals behind this great technology stock.

We have continued to see a lot of good companies producing good shareholder returns. However, as we have gone deeper down the list, we have begun to see more examples of cyclical companies and companies that have not had as stellar a record of operating performance. Therefore, it stands to reason that these less successful businesses have also produced lower shareholder returns. We believe its important for prospective investors to realize how different specific companies can perform regardless of the general state of the market.

When people refer to what the stock market is doing, they are more often than not speaking about the Dow Jones Industrial average. This leading index of 30 high profile stocks serves as a proxy for the overall health of both the economy and the stock market. We have long held that thinking in generalities can be harmful. When dealing with averages the numbers we associate with it represent an average of the whole group. It's important to remember, that the individual companies or components can have materially different results and even attributes than what we glean from the average itself.

This is the first of what will be a series of articles arguing in favor of investing in and owning quality common stocks now and for the foreseeable future. On an absolute basis, on real numbers precisely calculated, we believe that the markets in general are attractively valued today. The F.A.S.T. Graphs S&P 500 graph calculation is a current fact. Therefore, we believe that some of our finest and highest quality businesses are currently priced at the best valuations that we've seen in many years. Low valuations, represent an excellent opportunity for investors.

The first time Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985 he was fired. In short, his partners in upper management and the Board of Directors at that time did not share Steve's vision for Apple. His friend, Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corp., recently quipped upon the firing of another high profile CEO: That it was the second dumbest decision by a Board of Directors next to Apple's firing of Steve Jobs. What follows, will be a review of the consequences of Steve Jobs firing, followed by what he accomplished upon his return.

It has been my observation over my last four decades of studying the stock market that investors have a penchant for projecting into the future what is currently happening. In other words, when the market is behaving badly, they tend to believe it is going to continue to behave badly far into the future. And as I reflect on this, it occurs to me that every bull market has ended with a bear market, and conversely, every bear market has ended with a bull market. The most important attribute to remember about free-markets is that they self adjust. Most know this as the law of supply and demand.

For many people these are troubled times where fears about our economy and the stock market are at a heightened state. Stock price volatility is higher than we've ever seen it, adding to investor nervousness. Therefore, we searched for a safe place for conservative investors to invest. Our due diligence identified five dividend growth stocks that possess stringent quality characteristics, while at the same time have produced strong above-average historical returns. But more importantly, each candidate had to have future consensus earnings estimated growth rates greater than the S&P 500.

Although we generally believe in the soundness of the principle of diversification, we also believe that extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. Any historian of markets or economies would agree that financial markets are currently far from behaving ordinarily. We intend to point out several markets that are behaving both inefficiently and completely out-of-sync from sound and prudent economic principles. Therefore, we will argue that certain sacred cows that would and should apply during normal circumstances need to be questioned and challenged in these very uncertain times.

Extensive research, experience and analysis spanning more than 40 years has taught me that earnings determine market price in the long run. I have dubbed this principle with the acronym EDMP. However, there also exists a short-run evil twin sister EDMP. This principle states that emotions determine market price in the short run. Currently, the evil twin sister EDMP is in charge. In the longer run, I believe this spells opportunity based on the oldest of all investing adages 'buy low sell high.'

We don't believe in investing in the stock market, we believe in investing in great businesses. Therefore, we tend to focus more on how the business is performing on an operating basis than we do on stock price volatility. True Worth valuation is what we monitor and measure most closely. Our rationale is based on the reality that any business, public or private, ultimately derives its value from the amount of cash flows and earnings it can generate for stakeholders. The bigger the income stream they can buy, the bigger the value they will eventually receive.

A spate of frightening headlines has led to two troubling declines in financial instruments. The first, of course, is the decline in equity prices that has everyone worried about their financial futures. The second troubling decline in financial instruments is the unprecedented drop in Treasury bond yields. This is troubling because frightened investors are fleeing to the safety of Treasury bonds at the precise time when the risk of owning them has perhaps been the highest in recorded history. This is especially true for the long bond, but also applies to shorter-term bonds.

This article is about casting a light of reason on the longer-term perspective, in contrast to what is typically an emotionally charged attitude about short-term volatility. It is human nature to judge the performance of our portfolios based on their closing stock price for any given day, week, month, or even quarter. The point we're trying to make here is that it is not the most important factor, unless you were actually planning to sell on the day you measure it. Otherwise, the intrinsic value derived from the operating results that you generate is more important than price volatility.

At the special request of readers of our recent blog post titled Six High-profile Industrials with Staggering Three-year Performance? (Part 1) we have prepared a short video blog looking at 3M Corp. and Emerson Electric through the lens of our F.A.S.T. Graphs research tool. Click this link to view the video: youtu.be/EJrIx9sxhQ4

The recent history for Cummins Inc. (CMI) clearly illustrates that sometimes the greatest opportunities can be found during times of crisis. This gives credence to Warren Buffett's sage advice "be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy." Furthermore, stock price volatility is a fact that cannot be avoided when investing in publicly traded common stocks. On the other hand, we offer this analysis as evidence that over the longer run operating results are clearly more important than price volatility.

As a general rule there is an undeniable relationship between earnings and stock price. Where earnings go, stock price is sure to follow. However, since there are exceptions to every rule, there will be occasions where earnings and price become disconnected. When price rises significantly above earnings, we call this overvaluation. On the other hand, when price falls significantly below earnings, we call this undervaluation. Consequently, on this basis the principles of valuation can be a reliable and profitable means that investors can use to make intelligent buy or sell decisions.