The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (MHP)

Screener result, I looked for stocks 1 to 3 stars with good percentage of All Stars Outperform picks

Super undervalue stock with the ROE more than 50% for many years

This account tracks the performance of the investment firm Ruane, Cunniff, and Goldfarb - the investment manager of Sequoia Fund.

well run company

education

Current price implies you're buying Financial Services division for free, and Education and Media at fair value. I'm not about to make value judgments, but there's certainly some value in S&P.

get educated!

Synergy from several sources suggest that this stock is a buy.

Return on equity and return on working capital has exceeded 20% for each of the last 6 years, with at least half of the years above 30%.
EPS has generally been growing since 1999.

With a share price of $20.79:
- A DCF approach suggests a 84% discount to share value
- A Grahamian approach suggests a 73% discount to share value
- A Buffett style approach based on historical EPS growth suggests a 19.9% projected compounded total return; a sustainable growth suggests a 20.9% projected compounded total return.

Magic Formula Investing included this stock in its top 100 (1/20/2009).

Cramer, on 1/28/2008 said “The stock is very inexpensive. If you think that structured product can come back at all, you've got a real winner. I want to wait. I think you get paid to wait.” Since then, the price is less than half what it was then. It has now become what Cramer refers to as an accidentally high dividend stock. The question still on the table, though, is whether a structured product can come back.

unemployed flood schools driving textbook demand

Consistent dividend payers will outperform.

Knowledge is power.

College students need books. Almost every year, a new "edition" is published requiring students to purchase them. As a college student, I used to curse MHP but now as an investor, keep it up!

With unemployment on the rise, people are going to flock back to improve their odds in the job market by going back to school.

Nice dividend pay while waiting for the rebound.

S&P & BUSINESS WEEK

At these prices, McGraw-Hill is just too cheap. The company is more than the Standard+Poors. The education sector should be relatively recession resistant.

DOT is organizing millions in construction stimulation for government. Perhaps way early on the picks, but where the gov puts money there is "stimulation"

The adoption of semantic web technology will give information owners an increased opportunity to profit from their information assets.

This one may see a few bumps over the next year or so, but going long on this due to their product, and short-term waning from the credit 'crisis/crunch/insert c word here'. Price is good, and financials are great. Here's a few:

* Consistently rising EPS over last 10 years except 2001 (obvious reasons)

Returns (10 year average) - these are excellent:
Average ROE 29.66% Result: Good Buy
Average ROC 18.82% Result: Good Buy

Share Buyback (last 10 years)
Amount: 71800000 Result: Good Buy

There's more but I won't bore you with them ... going long here, but expect to not have timed it quite perfectly right now.

Got beat down, because of Moody's today is my guess. And they have been killed, by this whole sell off of financials. I'm really only making this play because of Standard and Poors, which may be naive do to MHP being more than just credit rating, but that's why they've been sold off.

First time above the 100dma since June 2006. Its a magicformula pick. All-Starts rate it outperform at a ratio of 43:2...and this isnt real money. So i'm jumping in now. Buy@43.65 on 5/14/08 and check in a year.