Should Value Investors Buy United Natural Foods (UNFI) Stock?

Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore strong picks.

Of these, perhaps no stock market trend is more popular than value investing, which is a strategy that has proven to be successful in all sorts of market environments. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

Zacks has developed the innovative Style Scores system to highlight stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will be interested in stocks with great grades in the "Value" category. When paired with a high Zacks Rank, "A" grades in the Value category are among the strongest value stocks on the market today.

United Natural Foods (UNFI) is a stock many investors are watching right now. UNFI is currently holding a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and a Value grade of A.

Investors should also recognize that UNFI has a P/B ratio of 1.11. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This stock's P/B looks solid versus its industry's average P/B of 1.79. UNFI's P/B has been as high as 1.27 and as low as 0.56, with a median of 0.99, over the past year.

Value investors will likely look at more than just these metrics, but the above data helps show that United Natural Foods is likely undervalued currently. And when considering the strength of its earnings outlook, UNFI sticks out as one of the market's strongest value stocks.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research