Below are three interesting ideas with the following caveats:
1. If you don’t have the time or inclination to read earnings reports, and react quickly to changing financial circumstances, investing in any stocks I write about will be hazardous to your financial health. I also have no idea which stocks will go up and when.
2. I’m fully prepared to suffer significant losses (sometimes greater than 50%) in a large amount of investments, since I know full well that my few winners will more than make up for the losers, as long as I sell the winners and don’t get greedy. If you don’t plan to diversify widely and cannot handle a complete loss of capital in one particular stock, do not bother to research these ideas.
3. Finally, do not expect any updates on the various stocks. Suffice to say, if the stocks go up to what I deem as fair value, I’ll be selling. If they go down, and fundamentals remain solid, I’ll be buying more.

Now on to some ideas:

WWWW: This stock should be familiar to long-time readers, as we made good money investing in WWWW some time ago. The company has gone thru various changes over the past few years (i.e. merger of equals with a former competitor), but has recently settled back to $3. At $3, the company has enterprise value of about $50 million ($34 million in cash and no debt), vs. high-margin, and recurring revenues of about $120 million. I estimate free cash-flow at about $20 million+ a year. The two kickers: the company’s last quarterly report showed a massive accounting loss which masks very strong cash profits, and WWWW has a nice buyback in place. So an investment in WWWW takes advantage of the Market’s propensity to misunderstand accounting earnings reports (overstating both losses on the downside and profits on the upside), coupled with the downside protection of a very low valuation and a corporate buyback.

OPWV: My purchase price in OPWV is actually significantly lower than the current stock price, but I still think that the stock has potentially enormous upside, assuming that certain events take place. OPWV is basically a well-known mobile software company, with a strong balance sheet, that has been a complete dismal failure as far as a business profits and investment returns are concerned. This of course spells huge opportunity, since investors are bound to ignore positive developments in well-known dogs until the stock price has climbed enormously. The positives for OPWV (recently trading for $0.89): A market cap that is still lower than cash on hand valuing the current $200 million or so a year business at less than $0, a business which has finally turned the corner on a cash-flow basis, and a growing interest in mobile plays. In normal times, OPWV would sell for at least 2X EV/Sales, which would equate to a stock price of at least $5. Will it get there? I have no idea. But the odds of such a move, if cash-flow continues to improve, and some deals are announced is higher than the odds of the stock remaining below cash.

CCUR: CCUR is another example of investor bias towards past failures which show strong evidence of improving fortunes. At a recent price of about $3.75, CCUR sports an enterprise value of $4 million, with nearly $28 million in cash and no debt. Sales at the company appear to have consistently been about $70 million a year (50%+ gross margins and little cap-ex). Recently, after years of losses, the company started making money again. I estimate free cash-flow at a little over $4 million a year for a EV/FCF ratio of about 1. In normal times, CCUR would sell for at least 1X EV/Sales, which would equate to a stock price of at least $12. Will it get there? Again, I have no idea. But the downside seems low here and the odds of an upside move seem very high.