The stock market has had an incredible bull-run since the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. While stocks are no longer hitting new all-time highs, the price-to-earnings ratios of most S&P 500 companies still look somewhat expensive historically speaking. Many investors are having trouble finding low-priced stocks that have great business fundamentals and actually generate cash flow.
Stocks have gotten expensive both in-terms of share price and their valuation relative to earnings. In more normal markets, a typical S&P 500 company has traded at about fifteen times their earnings. Most stocks are currently trading closer to 20 times their annual earnings. While the stock market is more expensive as a whole than it has been historically, there are still a handful of undervalued stocks that are trading at less than $1.00 per share.
Value investing opportunities do exist if you're looking in the right places. Putting together a list of the best stocks under $1.00 requires investors to look at smaller and riskier companies and in sectors that are either undiscovered or unloved by the market as a whole. Some of these cheap stocks may not look especially attractive today, but long-term investors will profit if they are willing to exercise patience and hold on to shares of these companies through multiple economic cycles.
Some of these companies are solid investing ideas because they are too little and considered too risky to attract the interest of most managed mutual funds and Wall Street money managers. Others operate in unloved and untested areas of the market. You may find even find crypto stocks, marijuana stocks, and biotechnology stocks on this list. Others have been beat up by Mr. Market after a long period of slowing profits, but are now actively trying to turn around their business and bounce back. These low-priced stocks operate in a lot of different industries, but these picks all carry two common characteristics. They all have a super-low share price of $1.00 (1 dollar) or less and consistently-receive "buy" and "strong buy" ratings from Wall Street's top-rated research analysts.
