Whirlpool Corp (WHR)

(A Top Pick Dec 8/14. Down 22.62%.) This has a lot of great things going for it, which started showing up this quarter. About 12% of operating income is from Latin America with a large portion of that being from troubled Brazil. She likes this company because the really good spot in the US economy is their housing. This last quarter they have started to see a pickup. Also, initiatives in Europe and Asia are starting to pick up steam.

Likes it. It is a great housing play. They do have a fairly high foreign revenue component and the high US$ has hurt them. Long term they can move past that.

His model price is $146.96. Trading at about a 7% premium to where he thinks its value is. At worse, it could get down to $148.

Cutting its revenue forecasts because of foreign-exchange on the US$. They have said this will cut their revenue by $2.5 billion. If you liked it before you heard the news, then quite likely that should not be a major concern. If the organic numbers are still producing mid-single digit organic revenue growth, that is pretty good.

US is about 55% of their business. Thinks that most people have written off growth in other parts of the world because of currency headwinds and the challenges in emerging markets. This is why this is such a great buying opportunity at $165. It is very cheap. The strength in the North American market should more than compensate for some weakness that you are going to see in other parts of the world. Emerging market is going to represent a tremendous amount of long-term potential, because appliance penetration in those markets is very low. Dividend yield of 2.17%.

A housing play which is the part of the market that has been doing well with renovation and remodelling. They are expecting a lot more growth out of North America. Had some capacity constraint issues. Have new products coming online. What is really exciting is that they did 2 joint ventures in Europe and China. They have the ability to take costs out of the system and really rationalize things. The acquisition of Maytag in 2006 had zero revenue growth and they almost doubled EPS. They are very good at running businesses. Dividend yield of 2.06%.

(A Top Pick March 12/14. Up 40.4%.)Still cheap. Lots of big cap US holdings are over 20X earnings. Looking for this to go to $235-$250, which would still make it only 16 or 17 times earnings. A good, international bellwether. Still likes it.

(A Top Pick Jan 24/14. Up 37.88%.) A year ago, this was dirt cheap and it is still very, very cheap compared to the broader market. Still has a lot of room to run. An absolutely clean balance sheet, potential for margin expansion and operational efficiencies. This is a nice pick on consumer spending and an increase in household formation along with housing starts in the US. Pretty heavily leveraged to people buying appliances when buying a home or moving into order homes.

If you think about what the potential long range economic market scenario could be, the consumer is going to benefit big time and this one would benefit.

This company benefits tremendously from scale. Recently announced 2 joint ventures, one in Europe and one in China. If you look at what they did in 2006 when they acquired Maytag. That was sort of the peak in spending in consumer appliances, so there really hasn’t been any top line growth. What has grown is their bottom line, which is about 90% in a “no growth” environment. Have a tremendous amount of run room for many years. 1.6% dividend yield.

This screens well on the things that she looks for. There is a compelling valuation, a good balance sheet and good margins. With the improvements you are seeing in the US and people spending, this is a pretty good name to own.

Reported record earnings. Trades at 11 or 12 times earnings. Decent dividend of 1.74%. A very undemanding multiple with very decent growth. There is an appliance cycle similar to autos, where people have been postponing. Sales were up 9% in North America for this company. 75% of households in the US own all 4 of washer, dryer, fridge and stove compared to China of 17%, India 11% and Brazil at less than 20%.

Likes this because it is not well covered by analysts. Balance sheet is very good. Has several multibillion-dollar brands. Exposure to Europe is improving. A lot of exposure to sales of existing homes and new homes. Could approach $200 within a year and move upwards after that. Yield of 1.7%.

Well managed company. This tends to move with the homebuilders. Has done well, not just on the back of the US experience, but also its emerging market experience. Latin America has been a good performer for them. Have also been very good managers of their business through cost initiatives. They’ve been able to improve the mix. Higher margins are dominating now. Pretty good value here.