Three bargain US stocks

With the S&P index trading on just under 11 times forward earnings, US stocks are the cheapest they've been in 15 years. Here, Marc Lichtenfeld picks three stocks that are not only cheap, but also have outstanding future prospects.

It's official: stocks are cheap. Analysts estimate that the S&P 500 companies will earn $96.34 per share as a group in 2010. Based on those projections the S&P is trading just under 11 times forward earnings.

And dating back to 1960, whenever the forward P/E has dipped between 10 and 15, the historical 12-month return is 12%, according to Oppenheimer Asset Management. Not too shabby. In fact, the forward P/E ratio of the S&P 500 hasn't been this low in 15 years.

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