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Here at Zacks, we focus on our proven ranking system, which places an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, to find winning stocks. But we also understand that investors develop their own strategies, so we are constantly looking at the latest trends in value, growth, and momentum to find strong companies for our readers.
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 rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.
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 stock to keep an eye on is Elekta (EKTAY). EKTAY is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 15.58, which compares to its industry's average of 32.59. Over the past 52 weeks, EKTAY's Forward P/E has been as high as 25.06 and as low as 13.99, with a median of 16.16.
Another valuation metric that we should highlight is EKTAY's P/B ratio of 2.58. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This stock's P/B looks attractive against its industry's average P/B of 4.36. EKTAY's P/B has been as high as 3.47 and as low as 2.23, with a median of 2.78, over the past year.
Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. EKTAY has a P/S ratio of 1.54. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 2.96.
Finally, our model also underscores that EKTAY has a P/CF ratio of 11.91. This figure highlights a company's operating cash flow and can be used to find firms that are undervalued when considering their impressive cash outlook. EKTAY's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 25.94. Over the past 52 weeks, EKTAY's P/CF has been as high as 14.21 and as low as 10.12, with a median of 11.89.
These are only a few of the key metrics included in Elekta's strong Value grade, but they help show that the stock is likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, EKTAY looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.