Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc. (JLL)

Let me begin by making a concession: I worked (in the process of resigning) in HVAC new construction for Johnson Controls (formerly with York International) for the last 6 years. My personal anecdotal experiences along with a touch of real estate spending research has me believing new construction for US commercial real estate will slow down and will probably see negative year over year decreases. I'm probably not the only one who dreamed this up, Mr. Market shares my thoughts and reacted violently, slicing some 50% off prices from just a year ago. I was also pretty bearish of HG cousin American Reprographics as illustrated here: http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid=26434211&sort=recommendations, but there are reasons for interest in JLL

Now that I got that out of the way I can say with out a shadow of doubt JLL has legs to last. First the US has only only 1/3 of JLL's revenues and then new construction only makes up a potion of that. Once JLL builds a building there's profitable list of services that JLL can offer once the buildings built. It's a whiplash of profit the company gets like siting in the last row of a roller coaster. There's not only a geographic diversity, but a wide ranging type of revenue streams that don't all follow the same business cycles for spending. (Think sine, cos, and tan waves all on the same graph!)

Just a glimpse of the metrics say one thing to me: Cheap! The price to book ratio is less than 2 (although tangible PB is around 6 - hmmm..), P/E stands at 8, five year averages for return on assets, investments, and equity is 10, 18, and 22, and it trades 55% off all time highs.

JLL has a great reputation, the right business model to last through any downturn and now with recent negative market sentiment running high it's a great bargain.