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.
Of these, value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.
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.
One company value investors might notice is EZCORP (EZPW). EZPW is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and an A for Value.
Value investors also frequently use the P/S ratio. This metric is found by dividing a stock's price with the company's revenue. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. EZPW has a P/S ratio of 1.22. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.23.
Finally, we should also recognize that EZPW has a P/CF ratio of 11.11. This data point considers a firm's operating cash flow and is frequently used to find companies that are undervalued when considering their solid cash outlook. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 14.33. Over the past year, EZPW's P/CF has been as high as 11.22 and as low as 7.77, with a median of 8.94.
Value investors will likely look at more than just these metrics, but the above data helps show that EZCORP is likely undervalued currently. And when considering the strength of its earnings outlook, EZPW sticks out as one of the market's strongest value stocks.
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EZCORP, Inc. (EZPW): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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