SPECIALS
Ten Stocks Worth Fooling Around With

By Christopher Spink
May 16, 2001

Investors should be aiming to find decent companies worth backing in the long run. The Fool can prove a rich source for such investment ideas. Here, listed below, are ten shares written about lately on the website. All have provoked much discussion and comment in recent months here at the Fool.

Of course don't just take this coverage in isolation. Writers with divergent opinions scribbled these pieces at different times. Circumstances since then may well have changed. These are not explicit recommendations. Nobody can guarantee the future direction of these shares.

However, hopefully these ideas spark your imagination to do further research. Use this distillation of Foolish content as a point from which to start your own investment searches. You can get free annual reports delivered to your door for most of these companies through the Fool's Annual Reports Service.

Treat this simply as a list of companies that you might like to consider as investments, rather than explicit recommendations. Do your own research, and make your own decisions. If you're lucky you might unearth treasure and strike investment gold!

ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM)

Many tech shares warned about their trading performance before releasing first-quarter results but chip designer ARM kept quiet. The company didn't disappoint and has retained its heady rating. Recent articles ask whether the group can endure a downturn without any damage to its business.

ARM Q1 Results
ARM Results Preview - Hit or Miss?
Current share price
Discussion board

Bookham Technologies (LSE: BHM)

Bookham's bank balance stood at a healthy £238m at the end of April, when it was valued at just £350m, or 275p a share. "If you're a believer in the huge long-term growth potential of fibre-optics, then now's the time to start getting to grips with Bookham, its competitors and its products."

Believe in Bookham
Current share price
Discussion board

Cable & Wireless (LSE: CW.)

Cable & Wireless has come in for a lot of criticism in recent months. Investors can't decide whether its £6b cash pile provides a buffet from the battering the telecom sector has suffered this year or a drag on the group's growth plans. The shares have dropped lately and may represent a bargain.

Duelling Fools on C&W
C&W disconnects from Optus
Telecom pricing wars 
Current share price
Discussion board

Capital Radio (LSE: CAP)

Commercial radio broadcasters enjoyed a great year in 2000. Investors admired their light business models. Then advertising revenue forecasts fell and so did the shares. Is UK market leader Capital a bargain or should you steer clear of this great business with a poor record in making acquisitions?

Capital Radio: time to tune in?
Current share price 
Discussion board

Halma (LSE: HLMA)

Electronics and safety equipment maker Halma has long been considered a possibility for the Qualiport. This recent piece looks at the group's impressive free cash flow yield, a measure which might show the real financial strength of a proposed investment.

Free cash flow yield 
When Harry met the Qualiport 
Current share price
Discussion board

Imperial Tobacco (LSE: IMT)

Investors with an ethical bent might routinely dismiss cigarette makers. But putting these concerns to one side, the Qualiport has screened the sector and concluded that indebted Imperial Tobacco is the pick of the bunch because of its dominant presence in wider international markets.

Imperial Tobacco: seriously tempting 
Current share price
Discussion board

Inchcape (LSE: INCH)

Value nut Stephen Bland (TMFPyad) reckons an inchcape could be a raincoat for midgets as well as the name of a very cheap share indeed. The question is if there is anything to out Inchcape's value. Without this added extra a lot of value shares are simply cheap and remain cheap. And that's not good enough.

Inchcape: the asset stripper's value target
Value investing discussion board
Current share price
Discussion board

Nycomed Amersham (LSE: NAM)

When James Carlisle looked at the pharmaceutical services company's first quarter figures he concluded that it's a company that investors unfairly ignore: "It's in the FTSE 100, it's in an exciting industry and it has a steady record of earnings growth, yet no one seems the slightest bit interested."

Nycomed Amersham: unfairly ignored
Current share price
Discussion board

Railtrack (LSE: RTK)

What does the future hold for Railtrack after the Hatfield crash? "The balance between a public company running a service and a Government that partly funds it, and has a keen interest in its safe and reliable operation, is very difficult." The shares have been punished harshly. Does this represent value?

Mechanical Value in the FTSE
Railtrack: size matters
Reality arrives for Railtrack
Current share price
Discussion board

Trafficmaster (LSE: TFC)

In mid-March Maynard Paton (TMF Mayn) suggested that "with a current market value of just £315m (at 250p per share), the leading player in the rapidly growing world of telematics looks a steal." If you believe demand for in-car information will take off, Trafficmaster may deserve a closer look.

Trafficmaster: a tech bargain
Current share price
Discussion board

The author has beneficial interests in ARM Holdings, Cable & Wireless and Halma.