What better way to kick off the new year than with my first round of stocks. All the trades will be placed in a fictitious mutual fund properly named the Garcia Value Fund. The screen used is randomly choosing 3 stocks from the top 25 results with a minimum market capitalization of 50 million. The average holding period will be 3 years (I hope).

Date: January 12,2008

Symbols: Rails, ACN, PACR

Accenture Ltd. (34,ACN) is a leading management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company. Recently, Accenture was named one of Morningstar’s Three Top Value Creating Stocks. With a pretax earnings yield of 15% and pretax return on capital greater than 100%, Accenture represents great value.

Pacer International Inc (12, PACR) operates as a non-asset based logistics provider in North America.With the U.S economy slowing down (and possibly heading into a recession), mr.market is dropping freight stocks down. Pacer currently has a pretax earnings yield of 18% and pretax return on capital greater than 100%. Pacer currently has a P/E of 8 with a P/E of 7.

Freightcar America (30,RAIL) engages in manufacturing, rebuilding, repairing, selling, and leasing freight cars used for hauling coal, other bulk commodities, steel and other metals, forest products, and automobiles in North America. It offers coal-carrying railcars that include gondolas and open-top hoppers. Freightcar America currently has a pretax earnings yield of 59% and pretax return on capital greater than 100%. Freightcar America currently has a P/E of 4 with a P/E of 17. Freightcar America has one of the best balance sheets that I have seen with lots of cash and very little debt.

Next Purchase: April 12, 2008

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