Phoenix Rising

If you could come up with a short list of former Internet high fliers, CMGI would certainly be near the top of the list. Trading as high as the 160s in the late 1990s, the stock currently goes for ~$2.3 after going as low as $0.3 .

What is interesting about this stock is that it started popping up on some of the quant ranking systems I follow. They are typical multi-factor ranking systems that include such metrics as valuation (price/sales, or cash flow, book, earnings, etc), momentum, operating efficiency, shareholder yield, etc.

Most remember CMGI as the poster child Internet incubator. Now it more closely resembles an IT services & supply chain management firm. They still operate the old @Ventures – but increasingly their investments have been in the alternative energy space.

CMGI has about $250 million in net cash and a $1.1B market cap, is profitable and trades for a P/S of about 1. What is interesting to me is that you see very little hedge fund ownership. Most of the top holders are your typical quant style funds, including Barclays, State Street, Fuller Thaler, and Rentech – which makes sense given the high ranking in the systems I follow.

(Neither myself, nor any of my clients own any CMGI)