Like squirrels that hoard acorns for the coming winter, many companies have chosen to build up cash in the event of an economic slowdown or a market downdraft. You would think that conservative approach would be rewarded in this environment, but shares of these companies have been punished just as much as those that failed to plan for just such a rainy day.

But these are precisely the types of companies you want to own in this environment. The large cash balances allow them to prove their staying power to customers -- a key selling point when bidding against rivals that may run into financial trouble in a deepening slowdown.

A hefty cash stash can also be used to buy back stock and aggressively reduce share count, especially when that stock is at multiyear lows. Lastly, high cash balances give a company the flexibility to either acquire rivals or more aggressively invest in R&D while peers are backpedaling.

We ran a screen to find companies that have net cash (cash less debt) that is equal to at least 25% of the company's market value. Not surprisingly, tech companies dominate the list, as tech CFOs tend to hoard cash in this cyclical business. On the table below, note that eight of the 16 names on the list are in the tech sector.

Stashing the Cash
Company	Ticker	Net Cash ($m)	Market Cap. ($m)	Cash/ Mkt. Cap.
Abraxis Bioscience	ABII	666	2,546	26%
Broadcom 	BRCM	2,042	7,533	27%
Dell 	DELL	7,913	26,438	30%
Foster Wheeler 	FWLT	1,571	4,003	39%
Franklin Resources	BEN	5,099	15,499	33%
Health Net	HNT	1,588	1,910	83%
IAC/InterActive	IACI	1,193	2,068	58%
KBR	KBR	1,858	2,506	74%
Lam Research	LRCX	753	2,900	26%
McDermott Int'l	MDR	1,391	4,062	34%
Motorola	MOT	4,432	11,825	37%
NVR	NVR	801	2,975	27%
Red Hat	RHT	779	2,803	28%
SanDisk	SNDK	2,608	4,034	65%
Sun Microsystems	JAVA	2,045	4,217	48%
Boeing	BA	9,602	35,310	27%
Source: Thomson Reuters

With some of these stocks, the market has clearly overshot the mark, as net cash balances at KBR , SanDisk and HealthNet represent more than 65% of their market value.

HealthNet serves as a prime example of why you need to dig deeper when analyzing companies on a screen. The company appears to have more than $1.5 billion in net cash, compared with a market value of less than $2 billion. Trouble is, many of the investments on the balance sheet are in beleaguered financial institutions.

When the company reports quarterly results on Nov. 4, the actual value of the cash investments may be marked closer to a range of $500 million to $1 billion. That's still considerable, but not enough to provide investors with a sense of comfort -- especially when some of those assets could fall yet further in price.

Balance-sheet changes could also yield positive surprises in the current quarter. IAC Interactive sold off several businesses about six weeks ago but kept all of the cash on its own balance sheet. The company is currently sitting on $1.3 billion in cash, according to CEO Barry Diller, and this accounts for more than half of the company's market value. Investors are likely to revisit this beaten-down Internet stock once they get a deeper read on the company's streamlined operations and balance sheet.

Diller has hinted that he has become fairly gun-shy when it comes to acquisitions and may instead look to issue a one-time dividend at some point: "As we focus more, we will repatriate this cash in the next couple of years," he told The Wall Street Journal.

For some names on this list, business is actually pretty good, despite the share-price action. For example, Broadcom has fallen from $27 in late August to a recent $15, even as sales and profits are both on track to rise more than 25% in 2008.

Even if you assume that the company does not grow at all in 2009, the stock looks sharply oversold at just nine times projected 2009 EPS. If you back out the company's cash (and commensurate interest income off of that cash), shares trade for just seven times projected 2009 profits.

Yet Broadcom is very well positioned as a supplier of chips to the Ethernet, wireless connectivity and set-top box segments. And the company's recent R&D push is helping it penetrate new markets such as touch-screen and digital television.

The R&D push is already yielding market-share gains. Sales are expected to rise more than 25% in 2008, even though blended end-market growth rates are a more moderate 16%, according to Credit Suisse.

The company already holds a 30%-plus market share in chips used in Ethernet switching, Bluetooth, voice-over-Internet protocol and cable modems. It's unclear which platforms will be the high-growth areas a few years out, but Broadcom looks to be a player in whatever segments dominate.

As my fellow analysts over at Stockpickr.com note, KBR is also emerging as a deep value play. The firm's super-strong balance sheet is augmented by very low valuations in relation to cash flow. The company's considerable backlog also protects against a sharp economic downturn. Many of the company's projects are hard to stop once they get started.

Lastly, I'd suggest a closer look at SanDisk, which is cash-rich and likely to flourish in the years ahead, either as a stand-alone company or as a division of a larger tech firm. Samsung has already offered $26 a share for the company, and that offer could be further sweetened, as SanDisk has made it clear that Samsung and any other potential suitors are undervaluing SanDisk's projected royalty streams. Shares recently traded hands at around $18.