Market Valuations vs the Past

Interesting quote from Morningstar's article 10 High Conviction Purchases via Pat English of FMI Large Cap (FMIHX)
Today it is very difficult to find stocks that have defendable business franchises and strong balance sheets, and that trade at attractive valuations. In the late 1990s, even though stock market valuations were at an extreme, most of the excess was confined to a few sectors. It was not difficult to build a diversified portfolio of high-quality businesses at reasonable prices. Similarly, in the middle of the last decade, it was relatively easy to avoid housing-related stocks or complex financial enterprises that were heavily involved in derivative alchemy. Today, this is not the case. There is widespread overvaluation. Many more stocks are overvalued today than in the late 1990s; it's just that the mathematics of market weighted indices doesn't show this. In the late 1990s, highly valued mega market cap names like AOL, Dell, and Cisco made the markets look more expensive than the median multiple would indicate. Today, the median multiple is higher than what it was in 1999, a period that is widely regarded as the most expensive ever.


That is certainly true for me as its been extremely difficult to find many undervalued stocks in the US.  Overseas its a bit easier but at the moment, it's still a falling knife effect.

What did Morningstar list as their top 10?

Top 10 High-Conviction Purchases made by Our Ultimate Stock-Pickers

 

Star Rating

Size of Moat

Current Price (USD)

Price/ Fair Value

Fair Value Uncertainty

Market Cap ($ Mil.)

# Funds Buying

Nat Oilwell Varco NOV

4

Wide

72.73

0.86

Medium

30,718

3

GM GM

4

None

34.38

0.66

High

47,353

3

Wells Fargo WFC

3

Narrow

42.75

0.93

Medium

225,726

3

Devon DVN

4

Narrow

57.38

0.66

High

23,039

3

Apple APPL

4

Narrow

502.33

0.84

High

460,417

2

Oracle ORCL

4

Wide

32.41

0.85

Medium

148,617

2

CH Robinson CHRW

4

Wide

56.13

0.81

Medium

8,984

2

Intel INTC

4

Wide

21.92

0.88

Medium

108,611

2

Accenture ACN

3

Narrow

71.65

0.98

Medium

48,498

2

Apache APA

4

Narrow

78.99

0.72

Medium

30,270

2

Interestingly for me, I noticed and bought into several of these recently - namely WFC/AAPL/INTC.  For GM, I went with F instead.  I did look at a few of these others though.  There is definitely value hidden in some of these.