There’s a big difference between investing in a “cheap stock” and “cheap for a reason” stock, and the latter is a sure ticket to years of frustration. In the case of Johnson Controls (JCI), there are certainly legitimate criticisms of the business – the margins are really not that good, the scope of future margin improvement is uncertain, and the business has some definite gaps (particularly in more value-added areas). Even so, factoring in discounts and haircuts for those flaws still leaves me with a valuation comfortably above today’s share price. There is