Echoing a theme on many other popular blogs, I’ve decided to look back on the year to some of my most popular posts by page views in 2010. I started the blog in May 2010, so it covers just over half of the year.

1. Food Technology Inc. (VIFL) – Stock Analysis & Valuation

It turns out that the most popular post was on a stock that I never ended up investing in! With helpful links from Jae over at OSV, traffic for the first two posts was almost 40% higher than any other.

VIFL never quite reached my buy price, and I ended up missing out – the stock is up 82% since my original analysis.

2. FIS Tender Offer – Special Situations Investing

My second special situations investment ended up with a nice annualized return. I continue to search for attractive tender offers (see my post on VR as well), but haven’t found any recently with enough spread.

3. Newly Expanded Value Investing Resources

The Resources section of ValueUncovered is one of the most popular pages.

I have an updated planned, as there are several new resources that I’ve been using recently.

4. How-To Guide for Downloading Earnings Calls

Another how-to / general information type post. Considering how much time I spent searching for a good solution to this problem, I’m glad that it was valuable to visitors.

5. Alpha Pro Tech (APT) – Market Overreaction Leads to Undervaluation

The first post ValueUncovered portfolio pick, the stock is up since my original writeup but is basically break-even compared to the S&P. I think the stock still has room to run as the company goes through a transition after a banner year in 2009.

6. ADVC – Tiny Software Stock Turns In Record Numbers During Recession

I posted several updates on ADVC.OB as the company continued with its record-breaking performance. The stock paid out two quarterly dividends of $0.01 per share during 2010, for a yield of over 11%.

7. NexCen Brands (NEXC) – Liquidation with Catalyst for Higher Returns

My first liquidation play, everything has been quiet with the stock over the past several months – I’m assuming that management is still on track to wrap up all outstanding obligations in order to make a final distribution to shareholders.

8. EMMS – Going Private Transaction

Unfortunately, EMMS was my biggest losing position of the year, as the intended going private transaction fell apart due to disagreements with the lender.

I learned a great deal from the experience, and am glad I sold when I did – the stock is now languishing around $0.75, well below the deal price.

9. Jewett-Cameron (JCTCF): Undervalued and Under the Radar

Another stock that failed to meet my margin of safety requirements, I missed out on a significant gain as the stock appreciated. Management’s share buyback plan seems to have had the intended effect.

10. Value Uncovered Model Portfolio – August Update

While popular from a page view standpoint, I decided to discontinue monthly updates due to short-term volatility. As a value investor, many positions can take months or even years to pay-off and I don’t want the focus to be on short-term performance.

I will be reviewing my portfolio on a quarterly basis, and will be posting the fourth quarter and full year review in the next few days.

Disclosure

Long APT, ADVC, NEXC

Happy New Year! I have been on vacation for the past few weeks but am back and looking forward to 2011. I’ll have a few posts to recap the year shortly.

As usual, here are a some value investing links from the past few weeks:

Netflix (NFLX)

Long. Going back to the last Weekend Values post, Netflix was featured as a short thesis from noted investor Whitney Tilson.

If you haven’t seen it already, Reed Hastings, Netflix’s CEO, responded with an open letter to Tilson defending the company’s stock and business model.

The back-and-forth has caused quite an uproar. While I don’t have a horse in the race, I think it is very interesting to watch.

Phoenix Footwear Group (PXG)

Workout. Reverse stock splits and going private transactions can be a great source of profits for small-time investors. PXG is undergoing a reverse stock split in order to reduce its shareholder count below 300 – allowing them to cut the costly burden of SEC compliance.

Assuming the plan is approved in January, stockholders holding less than 200 shares will be cashed out at $0.75, far above the current market price.

Most major players will shy away from such a small absolute dollar gain, but it might be a nice (and nearly risk free return) for small portfolios. If nothing else, it is a good case study for future special situations investments.

Value vs Glamour: A Global Phenomenon

General. In 1994, a landmark study was published investigating the returns of ‘value’ stocks against their growth (or glamour) cousins. The original study covered a 26-yr period and determined that value stocks trounced the competition by a wide margin.

This new report by the Brandes Institute updates the original study through June 2010, while also broadening the scope to include non-US based stocks.

The findings are once-again consistent: value stocks consistently outperform.

I also found the closing quote  from Benjamin Graham to be very appopriate, not only for the study but my general strategy as we enter 2011:

“If we assume that it is the habit of the market to overvalue common stocks which have been showing excellent growth or are glamorous for some other reason, it is logical to expect that it will undervalue – relatively, at least – companies that are out of favor because of unsatisfactory developments of a temporary nature. This may be set down as a fundamental law of the stock market…“

Suggestions

If you have links or suggestions to detailed analysis from other value investors, please drop me a line using the Contact Form.

I’m always open to ideas from other investors, especially for a thoughtful and well-researched investment articles.

Disclosure

None