Beware: 'bargain' stocks may be toxic

Fifteen FTSE 100 companies now trade at less than half of their book value. So should you snap up these 'bargain' stocks? Sadly, says Tim Bennett, it's not that simple.

Since Warren Buffett declared that he was buying back into the stockmarket a few weeks ago, pundits have been eagerly providing evidence to back him up. The latest sure-fire 'buy' signal is the 'price to book' value (P/BV) ratio. "Value investors... say the market is now incredibly cheap by historic standards," says Andy Yates of Digitalook.com. He points out that 15 FTSE 100 companies now trade at less than half of their book value, and almost one in three blue-chip stocks trades on a P/BV ratio of below one. So should you snap up these 'bargain' stocks? Sadly, it's not that simple.

The price-to-book ratio

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Tim graduated with a history degree from Cambridge University in 1989 and, after a year of travelling, joined the financial services firm Ernst and Young in 1990, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1994.

He then moved into financial markets training, designing and running a variety of courses at graduate level and beyond for a range of organisations including the Securities and Investment Institute and UBS. He joined MoneyWeek in 2007.