Wendy's May Be the Next Big Turnaround Story

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- In an article that hit TheStreet Monday, I made a case against low-priced stocks, noting that potential diamonds in the rough exist.

I pointed out that I am long Nokia(NOK) on optimism regarding the company's turnaround plans as well as investment from and potential M&A with Microsoft(MSFT) . I suggested selling Sirius XM(SIRI) until a more aggressive and forward-looking management team, specifically from Liberty Media(LMCA) , is in place.

In this article, I consider another stock from the sub-$5 world: Wendy's(WEN) . I am long WEN and consider it a sensible speculative play for the aggressive section of long-term investors' portfolios. Wendy's actually pays a small dividend ($0.08 per share for a yield of about 1.7%). That helps ease the pain of the stock's pullback to below $5 and the boredom often associated with scaling into a relatively stagnant position. I would not be surprised to see WEN trade range-bound for some time.

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Investors love turnarounds. They just do not like sitting around waiting for them to happen. As such, I could see WEN spiking on strong sales or further stumbles by rival (and now No. 3) Burger King. Until the company shows that it's multi-year turnaround plan is starting to show material results, I do not expect the stock to be able to sustain upside.

In some ways, Wendy's is attempting to do what Domino's(DPZ) has done. Over the course of the last few years, Domino's pulled off a turnaround of epic proportions. The company essentially trashed itself publicly, ridiculing itself for cardboard-like crust and sauce that tastes like it came out of a can. Domino's laid out and executed a plan to improve the taste and quality of its food. It made an aggressive push to make online ordering more interactive and "social." Both moves have paid off big time. Over the past two years, the stock is up about 133%.