There are still investing bargains during market rally

THE market rally that began March 23 has brought many stocks back to where they were when the year began.

In my view, there are still some potential bargains left. Each of the stocks I see as bargains:

■ Has grown sales and earnings at an average of 10 percent a year or better in the five years through March.

■ Are down at least 15 percent in the past six months.

■ Sell for less than book value (corporate net worth).

Citizens Financial

Banks loans to hotels, movie theatres, cruise ships and many other industries are likely to turn sour. And

JOHN DORFMAN

the same is true for loans and credit-card debt issued to employees in those industries.

That’s why many bank stocks are cheap now. Among them, I would highlight Citizens Financial Group Inc. (CFG). It has managed to grow revenue at 11 percent a year the past five years, and earnings considerably faster.

Established in 1828 in

from the previous week.

‘Holding pattern’

Collins hasn’t been able to file more than one PUA claim since the program opened, he said. Collins said the system keeps rebuffing him and asking him to try again in two weeks. Two weeks pass, and nothing changes.

“I was brought up to work for a living. I served during the military. I’ve given (the government) everything they’ve asked for, but it’s like I’m at the airport in a holding pattern. I’m being treated like a number instead of a human being,” he said.

The one claim he has filed is listed with both unresolved issues and no outstanding issues. Scores of phone calls to the call center have been frustrating, too, Collins said. The call center is unable to address his claim outside of some basic questions, he said.

He questioned whether priority

Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens runs a network of 1,200 bank branches in 11 states.

The stock sells for 56 percent of book value, a fact that may have helped motivate three of the bank’s directors to buy shares in April and May.

Toll Brothers

A builder of high-end homes, Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL) has grown its revenue at a 21 percent pace in the past five years, and earnings at 22 percent. Now the question is whether people will have the courage to buy homes, especially high-end homes, during the coronavirus recession.

was given to the earlier claims and why others who applied after him received their benefits.

In her last Friday news conference as DETR’s director before resigning from the position, Heather Korbulic said the department was working to whittle down claims with pending issues “as quickly as we possibly can.”

“We address every claim in the order in which it was received,” Korbulic said. She added that some claims have more issues or are more complicated than others.

Joe Junio, 32, was out of work March 6, and a DETR representative told her early on she might not be eligible for traditional unemployment benefits. She had a W2 form for her taxi driver job, but she didn’t meet other work requirements, said Junio, of North Las Vegas. She tried applying for PUA but struggled to log in to her account on EmployNV.

Her repeated phone calls

Toll shares were at $48 at the peak in February, fell all the way to $14 at the March low, and now sell for about $32. My take is that the company will have a rough go for at least a year. However, I regard it as a good long-term holding.

Gray Television

The current recession will probably cause companies to cut their ad spending, because advertising is a discretionary expense and corporate budgets will be strained.

Gray Television Inc. (GTN), based in Atlanta, owns 157 TV stations that are affiliated with ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC.

Gray’s shares are down 34 percent this year through

yielded few results, and she still couldn’t access her account, Junio said. No account, no PUA claims to file.

It was a “very frustrating” process of repeated calls to DETR and, on the rare occasion she got through, getting few answers to her situation, Junio said.

“Every time, it’s just ‘doot, doot doot,’ ” Junio said.

It was her first time applying for benefits, and she was getting by on her savings and the CARES Act stimulus check, she said.

Until Thursday, when she woke up to a letter in the mail from DETR informing her she was, in fact, eligible for traditional unemployment benefits. She activated her unemployment debit card and received her long-awaited funding.

PEUC

Another pandemic benefits program has been a lifeline for 75-year-old Las Vegas resident Dannie Spencer.

June 19. They sell for only six times the past four quarters’ earnings, and 76 percent of book value. The company’s problems are real, but at this level (near $14, down from more than $22 in February) I think the odds favor the investor.

Disclosure: One of my clients owns shares in Toll Brothers.

Spencer said she’s “very, very thankful” for her additional 13 weeks of unemployment pay following a layoff in August. Her unemployment benefits ended in January, but she applied for and received additional benefits under the federally funded Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. The labor department reported 7,195 PEUC claims in Nevada for the week ending June 6, up 514 from the previous week.

But she’s also angry and concerned, wondering what happens when those 13 weeks are up. She’s 75 years old and is trying to avoid public spaces to protect herself from COVID-19.

“What about us? Are we just supposed to eat the cake?” she said.