Stock-Picking Through the Rubble

Charles Bobrinskoy of Ariel Capital Management has some essential questions to ask about the economic climate, its effects on stocks, and the scope of bargains: How bad is the news? How bad did we expect it to be? But beware of generalization.

"It's hard to make that call for the overall market," he told CNBC. "What you have to do is pick through the rubble of 2008 and find out individual companies where the negativity is too great. Some big banks, maybe the negativity is not big enough."


So where is it big enough?

"In some consumer companies, and some branded companies, there's plenty of bad news baked in," he said.

Such as?

He likes Dell.

"(Dell) is trading at about three and a half times EBITDA, just ridiculously cheap," he said.

Then there's Constellation Brands.

"A lot of people don't know the company," he said. "It's right up there with Gallo as the biggest wine company in the country, and the stock is under ten times earnings and a great growth business."

Also on his list is eBay.

"It's another fallen growth company that's being treated and valued like a value stock, trading at about eight times," he explained. "E-commerce is going to be growing, so we like it a lot here."


Disclosure information for Charles Bobrinskoy was not immediately available.