TBL stock, which had been stabilizing, has moved sharply to new lows with the market meltdown and now trades not too far from book value. The company has a tremendous global brand that has not been pursued fully, and the Swartz family, with a majority ownership, is leading the company again. It is pursuing several initiatives that will eventually, despite the economic headwinds, reinvigorate its margins, which have been in decline since 2005. The balance sheet is very strong - lots of cash and no debt. The metric that I believe most appropriately reflects the extremely low valuation is enterprise value (market cap + debt - cash) relative to sales. At just 0.3X, this ratio is just 25% of its average over the past decade and well below almost any retail-oriented stock.
