Tap Dancing on the Grave of Bon-Ton Stores

On December 5 when Bon-Ton Stores BONT was up more than 50 percent for the last month and closed at $17.51, Benzinga published the article, "3 Reasons to Short Bon-Ton Stores." At present, Bon-Ton Stores is now trading around $9.50.

It is difficult to see Bon-Ton Stores recovering.

Recently, Dot's LLC, another retailer like Bon-Ton Stores, filed for bankruptcy. Don't expect one less competitor to help Bon-Ton Stores out unless it is someone like Target TGT, Amazon AMZN, Ebay EBAY, or Wal-Mart WMT. Bon-Ton Stores will be gone long before any of those retailers will, that is for sure.

Bon-Ton Stores is now down for the last week, month, quarter, six months, and year of market action.

For 2014, it is off by 41 percent. Both the income statement and the balance sheet are in terrible shape. Sales growth and earnings growth are down.

Investors should not be tempted by the seemingly alluring price-to-sales ratio of 0.06.

That is so low not be Bon-Ton Stores is a value play. It is that low as Bon-Ton Stores is a value trap. The price-to-sales ratio is so low as little is selling so when it finally does it is disproportionately measured against the stock price. The price-to-sales ratio for Wal-Mart is 0.52. For Target it is 0.48. The price-to-sales ratio for JC Penney JCP, another doomed retailer, is 0.13.

Judge Bon-Ton Stores by the company it keeps for those who think it is undervalued!