September 2014 Value Idea Contest Announcement
In order to encourage more idea sharing GuruFocus hosts a monthly value idea contest. We will reward qualified value idea submissions $1000 if the idea double in 12 months. Qualified authors will also receive $100 per submission. The submissions are evaluated monthly.
We review all the submissions in the area of business quality, financial strength, management, valuation, presentations and user comments. To qualify the award and compensation, the submission should score 26 or higher. The goal of the contest is to dig out high quality companies at reasonable prices. That is also how the scoring tilted to.
These are September’s submissions and the results of the review. Click on the tickers will bring you to the submissions.
| Author | Ticker | Business Quality | Financial Strength | Management | Analytical Depth | Undervalued | Presentation | Comments | Total |
| Robert Abbott | WRLD | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 28 |
| Robert Abbott | USPH | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 26 |
| apolloportfolio | BOBE | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 26 |
| Robert Abbott | SRCL | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 25 |
| apolloportfolio | ASNA | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 25 |
| Robert Abbott | Q | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 24 |
| apolloportfolio | CROX | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 24 |
| apolloportfolio | MTRX | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 24 |
| apolloportfolio | SALE | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 22 |
| apolloportfolio | OI | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 22 |
| apolloportfolio | TEX | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 22 |
| apolloportfolio | UTIW | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 19 |
These are the comments on some of the submissions. Authors please review the comments and hopefully they will help you to write better in future submissions.
The business seems not performing well as the margin is thin and unstable. But the asset the company owns are
An interesting retailor seems to be a relative safe bet. But the same store sales is turning negative, which may indicate business deterioation
Seems to be a lot of things need to work for a successful turnaround. The stock is cheap. But the business has no moat.
The business seems to have very thin margin. The financial strength is high as it doesn't have much debt. Strong growth in revenue.
The current P/E ration of 58 is not cheap. The growth is good. But a business that can be impacted easily by search ranking seems not to have enough moat.
The quality of the business seems to be in question as the company cannot grow. The margin is so thin through out the history. Is not a company I would invest.
The business seems to be extremely cyclicle and never fully recovered from the financial crisis. For this kind of company, P/S ratio might be a good indicator. While it is low, it was much lower in 2009 and 2012.
A business consistantly losing money. Overall the risk of losing money cannot be justified.
$100 per submission will be paid to the qualified submissions. We will also track the performances of these submissions. $1000 will be paid to these authors if their picks double in the next 12 months. Non-qualified, but exclusive submissions will be paid as regular articles.
We are looking forward to more submissions. Wish your pick double in 12 months.
