NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
With the flow of fourth-quarter earnings reports slowing to a trickle, investors may be looking for few investment ideas, and two money managers appeared on CNNfn to suggest some stocks in the mining, media and petroleum sectors.
Stephen Leeb, president of Leeb Capital Management, believes PetroChina is a good way to play the hot streak of publicly traded Chinese companies.
"PetroChina is the currency the Chinese government is using to acquire assets, oil assets, outside of China," he noted. "If you buy PetroChina, let me just say who your two biggest partners are: Ninety percent of the company is owned by the Chinese government, who knows a few things about running an economy. The other biggest shareholder, second biggest shareholder, of PetroChina is Warren Buffett."
| Stephen Leeb's picks
|
|
|
|
|
Leeb's second selection is Apex Silver Mines.
"Silver, I think, is much, much cheaper relative to gold. Silver is about 1/50th the value of gold. Historically this ratio is about 15 to one," he added. "So there's a lot of room for silver to move up. That said, even if silver were to go down to $5, Apex would still be a cheap stock."
The Washington Post rounds out Leeb's picks.
"If you take its Kaplan unit and value it, let's say like Apollo is valued, what you end up with at the end of the day is, when you buy 'The Washington Post,' you're getting this paper for free," he said. "The value of Kaplan as a stand-alone company, in other words, would be worth what the entire company is worth right now."
Funds under Leeb's management own stakes in the companies mentioned.
Shares of the Washington Post (WPO: down $12.00 to $848.00, Research, Estimates) are in a 52-week range of $650.03 to $866.98.
PetroChina (PTR: down $0.78 to $48.32, Research, Estimates) shares have been between $20.33 and $63.70 in the last year.
Shares of Apex Silver Mines (SIL: up $0.05 to $20.15, Research, Estimates) are in a 52-week range of $12.17 to $23.57.
Charles White, president of MCF Asset Management, sees some value in Silicon Graphics.
"They got some financing a few months back and they are now stabilized," he noted. "The company is on its way back to profitability, probably an event that will happen in the next quarter or two. There's real revenue. This is the real business with good products and a great customer list. I think the stock can work its way to $5."
White's second selection is Autobytel.
| Charles White's picks
|
|
|
| Pharmaceutical Product (PPDI)
|
|
|
|
"When you think about how much we now buy on the Internet and how confident we are about working on the Internet, then you take the competitive industry like the automobile industry and Autobytel just simply has this huge dealer network," he said.
White's last selection is Pharmaceutical Product Development.
"They are a company that benefits from the big pharma outsourcing clinical trials on drug development. They also happen to take an interest in some of the drugs that they are working on in clinical trials," he added. "That's the controversial part of the story because people think that they`re not really applying their resources properly."
Funds under White's management own stakes in the companies mentioned.
Shares of Silicon Graphics (SGI: down $0.21 to $3.39, Research, Estimates) are in a 52-week range of 85 cents to $3.61.
Autobytel (ABTL: down $0.69 to $11.11, Research, Estimates) shares have been between $2.50 and $13.53 in the last year.
Shares of Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPDI: down $0.64 to $29.36, Research, Estimates) are in a 52-week range of $21.74 to $32.24.
|
