The Globe and Mail attempts to identify profitable companies with reasonable valuations relative to their respective sector medians in its Thursday, Jan. 14, edition. The Globe's Ian Tam writes in the Number Cruncher column that recent market conditions have pushed stock valuations to low levels. The current median price-to-book ratio of all stocks in the Morningstar CPMS universe (about 740 stocks) is 1.07 times book value. Looking over the past two decades, the last time P/B levels reached this level was in November, 2008, during the financial crisis when the median P/B ratio fell to a low of 0.94. With this in mind, Mr. Tam employed a strategy with a distinct value focus that also considers companies that continue to be profitable within their sectors. Only the top 250 stocks in Canada by market cap were considered, by Mr. Tam. In addition, to ensure that companies are not overly leveraged, Mr. Tam screened for stocks with debt-to-equity ratios of 0.44 or lower. Mr. Tam's profitable companies with reasonable valuations are Rona, Com Dev International, Maple Leaf Foods, E-L Financial and Empire.