While the proven Zacks Rank places an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find strong stocks, we also know that investors tend to develop their own individual strategies. With this in mind, we are always looking at value, growth, and momentum trends to discover great companies.
Considering these trends, value investing is clearly one of the most preferred ways to find strong stocks in any type of market. Value investors use a variety of methods, including tried-and-true valuation metrics, to find these stocks.
Luckily, Zacks has developed its own Style Scores system in an effort to find stocks with specific traits. Value investors will be interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with both "A" grades in the Value category and high Zacks Ranks are among the strongest value stocks on the market right now.
Alerus Financial (ALRS) is a stock many investors are watching right now. ALRS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 9.56, which compares to its industry's average of 21.63. Over the past 52 weeks, ALRS's Forward P/E has been as high as 19.71 and as low as 7.50, with a median of 9.87.
Value investors also love the P/S ratio, which is calculated by simply dividing a stock's price with the company's sales. This is a popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. ALRS has a P/S ratio of 1.45. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 2.08.
Finally, our model also underscores that ALRS has a P/CF ratio of 13.57. This metric takes into account a company's operating cash flow and can be used to find stocks that are undervalued based on their solid cash outlook. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 22.89. Over the past year, ALRS's P/CF has been as high as 41.87 and as low as 9.72, with a median of 15.16.
These figures are just a handful of the metrics value investors tend to look at, but they help show that Alerus Financial is likely being undervalued right now. Considering this, as well as the strength of its earnings outlook, ALRS feels like a great value stock at the moment.
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Alerus Financial (ALRS): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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