One fund manager certainly thinks so.
According to John Murray, fund manager and founder of Perennial Value Management, it's been a frustrating year for value investors – but there is still value to be found, even among the blue chips.
Mr Murray has told Fairfax Media that investors have been attracted to the 'so-called defensive' stocks including toll road operator Transurban Group (ASX: TCL), Sydney Airport Holdings Ltd (ASX: SYD) and biopharma group CSL Limited (ASX: CSL).
Those three have seen their share price rise by 26%, 36% and 25% respectively over the past twelve months.
But he says these companies are now trading on extreme valuations, and the perception of certainty in earnings in shares is flawed.
Unwilling to take a bet on those types of stocks, Mr Murray says he is looking elsewhere and has found a number of unloved stocks that are opportunities. They include Event Hospitality and Entertainment Ltd (ASX: EVT), Crown Resorts Ltd (ASX: CWN) and AMP Limited (ASX: AMP).
Event is up 18.4% in the past year, although flat in the past six months. Crown's share price is down 3.6% over the past year and AMP has dropped 8.3%. They certainly appear unloved by the market despite the 12.8% growth in dividends per share per year.
Mr Murray points to catalysts that could drive their earnings higher including a lift in tourism for Event Hospitality, a demerger of its Asian assets for Crown and efficiencies in AMP.
However, Event Hospitality doesn't appear cheap, trading on a trailing P/E of 18.2x and paying a 3.3% fully franked dividend. Crown doesn't appear cheap either – with a P/E of 22.5x and a 4% partly franked dividend.
AMP is not what I would consider an investment grade stock – having delivered a total shareholder return of just 1.3% over the past 10 years, with earnings and dividends going backwards over the same period.
Foolish takeaway
Contrarian investors can do well when they avoid the stocks the market loves – but it also pays to stick to high quality companies that are cheap, and I'd be looking at the mid-cap space rather than the blue chips here.
