At 27, AIG trades for 5 times the 2009 consensus estimate of $5.40 and below book value of $33.

Gannett, whose shares have fallen this year by 54%, to 18, after a 35% decline in 2007, is the leader in what may be the most hated market sector: newspapers. Its second-quarter earnings were down 22%, to $1.01 a share, and the rest of the year looks difficult. A lot of bad news, however, already is in its shares, which trade for less than six times projected 2009 profits. Gannett is a long way from going out of business. Instead, it's a highly contrarian investment. Investors get a 9% dividend yield, well-covered by earnings.

Marathon, whose shares fell 21% to 42 in the past month, also has a mini-P/E of 5.2, owing to its exposure to the refining business, which has been hurt by sharply lower margins this year. Marathon's fans, like Sanford Bernstein analyst Neil McMahon, argue that the company is misperceived as a refining play, while it should get more than half its profits next year from an attractive and growing base of oil- and gas-producing assets. Marathon also could be a takeover target, given a digestible market value of $30 billion.

All the major U.S. energy companies -- Chevron (CVX) ExxonMobil (XOM) and ConocoPhillips -- trade for less than eight times projected '09 net, and Conoco is the cheapest of the lot. The stock, off 13% from its June peak, to 82, fetches six times projected 2008 profits of $13.03 a share and 5.8 times estimated '09 net of $14.13 a share. Conoco last week reported second-quarter operating net of $3.50 a share, up from $2.90 a year ago, despite a collapse in refining profits. The Street knocks Conoco for disappointing exploration efforts, but should the stock trade at a P/E of just six?

Goodyear Tire, a victim of a weak U.S. auto market, is down 28% this year, to 19. The tire maker trades for seven times projected 2009 profits of $3.18 a share.

Even Google (GOOG), often described as a high-flier, trades for a relatively modest 20 times projected 2009 profits of $24. Google shares are down 29% this year, to $490. "The high-end multiples aren't too high," says Jim Paulsen, the chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis, who prepared the screen.

Intuitive Surgical dominates the field of robotic-surgery devices, but it's tough to justify the stock's gargantuan multiple

Among the high-P/E stocks, Amazon.com reported second-quarter results that topped estimates, boosting its shares 11%, to $78. Amazon trades at 37 times estimated 2009 profits, one of the highest P/Es for any big S&P 500 company.