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.
Looking at the history of these trends, perhaps none is more beloved than value investing. This strategy simply looks to identify companies that are being undervalued by the broader market. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.
On top of the Zacks Rank, investors can also look at our innovative Style Scores system to find stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will want to focus on the "Value" category. Stocks with high Zacks Ranks and "A" grades for Value will be some of the highest-quality value stocks on the market today.
One company value investors might notice is Kaiser Aluminum (KALU). KALU is currently holding a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and a Value grade of A. The stock holds a P/E ratio of 13.27, while its industry has an average P/E of 18.10. Over the past year, KALU's Forward P/E has been as high as 26.64 and as low as 11.53, with a median of 14.12.
Another valuation metric that we should highlight is KALU's P/B ratio of 1.61. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. KALU's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 2.94. Over the past 12 months, KALU's P/B has been as high as 2.08 and as low as 1.07, with a median of 1.69.
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. KALU has a P/S ratio of 0.46. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.06.
These are just a handful of the figures considered in Kaiser Aluminum's great Value grade. Still, they help show that the stock is likely being undervalued at the moment. Add this to the strength of its earnings outlook, and we can clearly see that KALU is an impressive value stock right now.
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Kaiser Aluminum Corporation (KALU): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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