Fifth Third Asset Management's Mary Jane Matts is an expert on value investing. So, in this topsy-turvy market environment, what does "value" mean?
"The global slowdown in PC demand, I think, is largely priced into (technology) stocks," she told CNBC. "If you look at a company like Microsoft, trading at ten times earnings, with a very high-quality balance sheet, the opportunity to do share buy-backs, decent dividend yield, it's tough to pass it up."
She thinks there's been sufficient anecdotal evidence to believe that things began to turn around in the fourth quarter.
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In addition to Microsoft, Matts likes VF Corp.
"That's the apparel manufacturer that does Nautica and North Face," she said. "Look to them to be doing some acquisitions, while the rest of the competition for take-outs is on the sidelines."
Also on her list is Schering-Plough.
"The one that has the least generic exposure, so the best chance of weathering that patent-expiration cliff drop-off in earnings that the rest of the sector is facing in 2010 and 2011," she said.
Disclosures:
Disclosure information for Mary Jane Matts was not immediately available.