Spectra Energy Corp. (SE), Monster Worldwide, Inc. (MWW): 3 Stocks Near 52-Week Lows Worth Buying

The jobless claims shake
Every once in a while, I will throw out a speculative pick that goes completely against my usual fundamental rules. This week, I’m going to suggest we Harlem Shake ourselves a little bit closer to employment solutions provider Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:MWW), which looks ripe for the picking.

A company like Monster Worldwide needs a myriad of things to go right in order for it to succeed. Most importantly, it needs the job market to improve in order for out-of-work people to feel like they have a shot at obtaining gainful employment. With the length of unemployment totaling nearly three-quarters of a year for most workers, sentiment isn’t exactly high with regard to obtaining a job. That could be changing, though, as jobless claims of 332,000 nearly matched January’s four-year low of 330,000 and the unemployment rate ticked to a four-year low at 7.7%.

Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:MWW) is also a particularly attractive investment when put in a side-by-side against the bloated LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), which allows business professionals to build and manage their own networks online. Clearly LinkedIn caught on to a much greater extent than Monster, but the valuations are simply far too apart to not advocate buying Monster. If LinkedIn is worth 20 times sales and 85 times forward earnings, then Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:MWW) is a veritable steal at less than 0.7 times sales and 13 times forward earnings.

Foolish roundup
This week it’s all about finding beauty products on the bottom shelf. Spectra Energy, Monster Worldwide, and the iShares Silver Trust may need a little polishing before they look lustrous again, but the tools are in place for all three to head higher over the long run.

The article 3 Stocks Near 52-Week Lows Worth Buying originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Sean Williams.

Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool owns shares of LinkedIn. The Motley Fool recommends DCP Midstream Partners, LinkedIn, and Spectra Energy.

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