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Is Heritage-Crystal Clean (HCCI) a Great Value Stock Right Now?

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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 a variety of methods, including tried-and-true valuation metrics, to find these stocks.

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 Heritage-Crystal Clean . HCCI is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as an A grade for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 17.61 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 28.75. Over the past 52 weeks, HCCI's Forward P/E has been as high as 38.65 and as low as 16.17, with a median of 26.15.

HCCI is also sporting a PEG ratio of 1.17. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. HCCI's PEG compares to its industry's average PEG of 2.36. HCCI's PEG has been as high as 2.58 and as low as 1.08, with a median of 1.74, all within the past year.

Another notable valuation metric for HCCI is its P/B ratio of 2.32. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against 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 5.43. HCCI's P/B has been as high as 2.77 and as low as 1.12, with a median of 2.26, over the past year.

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 prefered metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. HCCI has a P/S ratio of 1.64. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 2.1.

Finally, our model also underscores that HCCI has a P/CF ratio of 12.09. 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. HCCI's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 20.36. Over the past year, HCCI's P/CF has been as high as 19.88 and as low as 10.99, with a median of 16.45.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in Heritage-Crystal Clean'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, HCCI looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.

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