E_K_S. About forest product companies: They're mostly slow growers -g-.
In past - before China - I guess most everyone would see these stocks as cyclical. And even if they still are, it's not so easy (not so easy for me, that is) to see where we are in that cycle.
My preference is to buy a package here, and buy when the prices or situation seems inviting.
RYN: It's too expensive. High p/sales, p/book, high stock price. But who knows - maybe the stock price will surge even higher.
GP: seems okay, fair. I'm indifferent. I'm no expert though, and I've been wrong many many times.
My three positions, fwiw:
WY: I bought because activist investor - Franklin Resources - is trying to pressure BOD to realize shareholder value that Franklin says exists with the "low" stock price. M. Price, retired from Franklin, was instrumental in getting shareholder value out of Chase bank with his insistent/persistent prodding. Maybe Franklin can do this again here. May take years. p/sales, p/bk didn't seem too bad for a buy last time I looked.
IP: I bought because stock at lows. Also p/bk and p/sales low. If I recall rightly, IP is the among the largest US landowners. They recently announced they were going to restructure significantly (has underperforming assets).
UPM: I bought because stock near its lows. Low p/e, decent profit margins, European domiciled (Finnish), big in magazine paper (Maybe newspaper readership is down, but seems to me that people are still buying/reading lots of mags). Dividend.
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