So I came across this recent post over on Yahoo Finance: "13 Most Undervalued Blue Chip Stocks To Buy According To Analysts".
Here's their list: VZ (Verizon), KO (Coca-Cola), WMT (Walmart), MSFT (Microsoft), AMGN (Amgen), AAPL (Apple), MCD (McDonald's), MMM (3M), CVX (Chevron), AMZN (Amazon), NKE (Nike), UNH (UnitedHealth), BA (Boeing).
Ah yes, good ol' fall-from-the-sky Boeing was rated as the most undervalued stock. Also according to Yahoo Finance, it has made losses in each of the last 4 years at least. A United Airlines Boeing 737 lost a panel mid-air link. There's plenty more disasters, too.
A whistleblower due to give evidence against Boeing at a trial on a different matter died, apparently suicide. He had previously said "If I die, it wasn't suicide."
There was also an incident earlier this year where another panel blew out of a Boeing.
The diligent (ha!) folks on WSB (Wall Street Bets, a subreddit over on Reddit) made some observations in this post:
They had all hands on deck today. They must have had every investment firm and bank propping up their stock. The stock would drop $1 and somebody would buy stock and prop. Up the price immediately. It was like that all day today, but it finally dropped $2.38 after hours
In response to the theory that the Chinese were infiltrating the company to bring it down, one said:
The only thing that infiltrated Boeing was MBAs and parasite class vampires that undermined their strong tradition of engineering excellence for short term gain. This is a more plausible explanation. It seems likely that people would get some kind of security clearance before mucking around with aircraft.
Perhaps Boeing is "undervalued" for a reason.
Anyway, that's enough about Boeing. Time to pick on someone else.
KO is on a PE of 24, which hardly screams value for a large mature company. WMT is on 32, which likewise seems pricey. MSFT is on 38, also pricey, but may yet justify its valuation over the long term. AMZN is on 60, and has always been a highly-rated company. CVX is on a PE of 14, which might actually be somehwat reasonable, assuming oil prices don't decline. For comparison, in the UK, SHEL (Shell) is on a TTM PE of 12. Stockopedia puts it on a forward rating of around 8, with little growth expected, so make of that what you will.
MCD is an interesting case for me. It is only a PE of 24, which again seems pretty pricey for the type of business. Revenues have risen 32% over the last 3 years, which is actually pretty impressive. Net income has risen 79%. By contrast, lower down the food chain, JACK (Jack in the Box) has a much lower rating at 12X. Revenues have risen 66% over the last 3 years, whilst net income has risen a more modest 46%.
JACK is interesting to me because I was discussing RUT (Russell 2000) with a chum in America late last year. He revealed that RUT hadn't really moved over the last 5 years, and that 30-40% of the RUT were loss-making companies. I said that in that case it ought to be easy to outperform the RUT. I selected a share from RUT, just weeding out the non-profit-makers until I came across JACK. I recognised JACK, so decided to have a friendly bet with my mate that it would outperform the RUT over 5 years. Wish me luck.