Top 5 Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now

LONDON --�The FTSE 100 has risen by 25% over the last year, and many top shares are beginning to look quite expensive.

I'm on the hunt for companies that still look cheap, based on their long-term earnings potential. To help me hunt down these bargains, I'm using a special version of the price to earnings ratio called the PE10, which is one of my favorite tools for value investing.

The PE10 compares the current share price with average earnings per share for the last ten years. This smoothes out any short-term volatility and lets you see whether a company looks cheap compared to its long-term earnings.

Today, I'm going to take a look at the PE10 for�RSA Insurance Group� (LSE: RSA  )

Is RSA Insurance Group a buy?
RSA's share price has dropped by nearly 20% since February, when the firm announced a 33% cut to its final dividend, and said that the interim dividend would also be cut by a similar percentage.

However, despite the cuts, RSA's prospective dividend yield of 5.3% is still one of the highest in the FTSE 100 -- so is it a buy?

Top 5 Quality Stocks To Buy Right Now: UnitedHealth Group Incorporated(UNH)

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated provides healthcare services in the United States. Its Health Benefits segment offers consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services to national employers, public sector employers, mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals; and non-employer based insurance options for purchase by individuals. It also provides health and well-being services for individuals aged 50 and older; and for services dealing with chronic disease and other specialized issues for older individuals, as well as health plans for the beneficiaries of acute and long-term care Medicaid plans. This segment offers its services through a network of 730,000 physicians and other health care professionals, and 5,300 hospitals. Its OptumHealth segment provides health, financial, and ancillary services and products that assist consumers through personalized health management solutions; benefit administration, and clinical and network management; health-based financi al services; behavioral solutions; and specialty benefits, such as dental, vision, life, critical illness, short-term disability, and stop-loss product offerings. The company?s Ingenix segment offers database and data management services, software products, publications, consulting and actuarial services, business process outsourcing services, and pharmaceutical data consulting and research services. Its Prescription Solutions segment provides integrated pharmacy benefit management services comprising retail network pharmacy contracting and management, claims processing, mail order pharmacy services, specialty pharmacy, benefit design consultation, rebate contracting and management, drug utilization review, formulary management programs, disease therapy management, and adherence programs to employer groups, union trusts, managed care organizations, Medicare-contracted plans, Medicaid plans, and third party administrators. The company was founded in 1974 and is based in Minne tonka, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 237.10 points, or 1.5%, to 16302.77 this week–its largest weekly gain since Feb. 14–after dropping 0.2% today. The S&P 500, meanwhile, gained 1.4% to 1,866.52. United Health (UNH) rose 7.5% to $81.34 this week, while Microsoft (MSFT) advanced 6.5% to $40.16, the help lead the Dow higher.

Top 5 Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now: LifePoint Hospitals Inc.(LPNT)

LifePoint Hospitals Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates general acute care hospitals in non-urban communities in the United States. The company?s hospitals provide a range of medical and surgical services comprising general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics, emergency room care, radiology, oncology, diagnostic care, coronary care, rehabilitation services, and pediatric services, as well as specialized services, such as open-heart surgery, skilled nursing, psychiatric care, and neuro-surgery. Its hospitals also offer outpatient services, including one-day surgery, laboratory, x-ray, respiratory therapy, imaging, sports medicine, and lithotripsy. As of December 31, 2009, LifePoint Hospitals owned or leased 47 hospitals with a total of 5,552 licensed beds in 17 states. The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee. Lifepoint Hospitals Inc. (NasdaqNM:LPNT) operates independently of HCA Inc. as of May 11, 1999.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Yesterday afternoon, Pennsylvania announced that it would use federal dollars to pay private insurers to cover eligible Pennsylvanians. UBS analysts A.J. Rice and Jailendra Singh think Community Health Systems (CYH), Tenet Healthcare (THC) and LifePoint Hospitals (LPNT) stand to benefit the most from the deal:

• [By Keith Speights]

  The fun wasn't just limited to the big three hospital operators. Lifepoint Hospitals (NASDAQ: LPNT  ) stock jumped 5% on the CMS news, reflecting a $109 million market cap expansion. Likewise, Vanguard Health Systems (NYSE: VHS  ) shares climbed 5%, bumping its market cap up by�$55 million.

Top 5 Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now: International Business Machines Corporation(IBM)

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) provides information technology (IT) products and services worldwide. Its Global Technology Services segment provides IT infrastructure and business process services, including strategic outsourcing, process, integrated technology, and maintenance services, as well as technology-based support services. The company?s Global Business Services segment offers consulting and systems integration, and application management services. Its Software segment offers middleware and operating systems software, such as WebSphere software to integrate and manage business processes; information management software for database and enterprise content management, information integration, data warehousing, business analytics and intelligence, performance management, and predictive analytics; Tivoli software for identity management, data security, storage management, and datacenter automation; Lotus software for collaboration, messaging, and so cial networking; rational software to support software development for IT and embedded systems; business intelligence software, which provides querying and forecasting tools; SPSS predictive analytics software to predict outcomes and act on that insight; and operating systems software. Its Systems and Technology segment provides computing and storage solutions, including servers, disk and tape storage systems and software, point-of-sale retail systems, and microelectronics. The company?s Global Financing segment provides lease and loan financing to end users and internal clients; commercial financing to dealers and remarketers of IT products; and remanufacturing and remarketing services. It serves financial services, public, industrial, distribution, communications, and general business sectors. The company was formerly known as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. and changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. IBM was founded in 1910 and is based in Armonk, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Alex Planes]

  Tale of the tape
  IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) will be a 34-year veteran of the Dow by the end of next month. Based in the suburbs north of New York City, IBM has been producing cutting-edge technology for over a century, which gives it real claim to the title of "World's Oldest Tech Company." IBM employs over 430,000 people, but it's remarkably nimble for such a massive company. "Nonstrategic" parts of IBM's business worth a total of $15 billion in annual revenue have been divested over the past decade, and its three major new initiatives (Smarter Planet, data analytics, and cloud services) all enjoyed double-digit revenue growth in 2012. Due to the Dow's price-weighting system, IBM is its single most important component -- a move in IBM stock prices will have several times the impact of a move in nearly every other stock on the Dow.

• [By Steven Russolillo]

  The Dow closed Thursday at 17068, its 14th record high of the year. It is up 3% this year, although it continues to lag other benchmarks such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, which are each up 7.4%.�As we noted earlier this week, a couple of high-priced Dow components, such as Goldman Sachs and IBM (IBM), have weighed on the Dow this year.

• [By Matt Koppenheffer]

  Again, Buffett doesn't just talk the talk here. Buffett wrote in his 2011 letter to Berkshire shareholders that he'd been reading�IBM's (NYSE: IBM  ) annual report for�more than 50 years! Yet he hadn't bought it. But then, suddenly, in 2011 he purchased a massive position for Berkshire because, he says, his "thinking�crystallized." He probably came to understand that IBM has become far more than a race-for-the-latest-innovation technology company and that companies around the world depend on it for comprehensive solutions.

Top 5 Cheap Stocks To Buy Right Now: Merck & Company Inc.(MRK)

Merck & Co., Inc. provides various health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. The company?s Pharmaceutical segment provides human health pharmaceutical products, such as therapeutic and preventive agents for the treatment of human disorders in the areas of bone, respiratory, immunology, dermatology, cardiovascular, diabetes and obesity, infectious diseases, neurosciences and ophthalmology, oncology, vaccines, and women's health and endocrine. This segment also offers human health vaccines, such as preventive pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines. Its Animal Health segment discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets animal health products. This segment offers antibiotics, anti-inflammatory products, vaccines, products for the treatment of fertility disorders, and parasiticides for cattle, swine, horses, poultry, dogs, cats, salmons, and fish. The Consumer Care segment develops, manufac tures, and markets over-the-counter, foot care, and sun care products. Its over-the-counter product line includes non-drowsy antihistamines; treatment for occasional constipation; decongestant-free cold/flu medicine for people with high blood pressure; nasal decongestant spray; and treatment for frequent heartburn. This segment?s foot care products comprise topical antifungal, and foot and sneaker odor/wetness products; and sun care products include sun care lotions, sprays and dry oils; and sunburn relief products. The company serves drug wholesalers and retailers, hospitals, government agencies, physicians, physician distributors, veterinarians, animal producers, and managed health care providers, as well as food chain and mass merchandiser outlets in the United States and Canada. Merck & Co., Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Thalman]

  Big pharmaceutical company Merck (NYSE: MRK  ) received a boost from an analyst at Jefferies today. The firm increased Merck's rating from a hold to a buy. The analyst feels Merck is among the best restructuring plays in the drug business, and that the company will likely spin off units as its core pharmaceutical business underperforms. Merck does have an animal division as well as a consumer health unit, which could both be peeled away. Shares of Merck are up 2.12% this morning.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Eli Lilly (LLY) have dropped this morning after Goldman Sachs downgraded the drug makers stock to Sell from Neutral, as they appear overvalued relative to competitors�AbbVie (ABBV),� Merck (MRK),�Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and� Pfizer (PFE).