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Zacks.com featured highlights include: GMS, Covenant Transportation, Domtar, Darling Ingredients and MGM

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 16, 2018 - Stocks in this week’s article GMS Inc. (GMS - Free Report) , Covenant Transportation Group, Inc. , Domtar Corp. , Darling Ingredients Inc. (DAR - Free Report) and MGM Growth Properties LLC .

5 Value Picks Flaunting Impressive EV/EBITDA Ratios

Investors typically have a fixation on the price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple, while seeking stocks that are trading at bargain prices. This straight-forward, easy-to-calculate ratio is the most-preferred one among valuation metrics in the investment toolkit for working out the fair market value of a stock. But even this widely used valuation metric is not without its shortcomings.

EV/EBITDA a Better Alternative, But Why?

While P/E enjoys great popularity, a less-used and more-complicated metric called EV/EBITDA gains an upper hand as it offers a clearer image of a company’s valuation and earnings potential. EV/EBITDA, also known as the enterprise multiple, has a more complete approach to valuation as it determines a firm’s total value. P/E, on the other hand, considers only its equity portion.

EV/EBITDA is the enterprise value (EV) of a stock divided by its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). EV is the sum of a company’s market capitalization, its debt and preferred stock minus cash and cash equivalents.

The other element of the ratio, EBITDA, gives the true picture of a company’s profitability as it removes the impact of non-cash expenses like depreciation and amortization that depress net earnings. It is also often used as a proxy for cash flows.

Generally, the lower the EV/EBITDA ratio, the more attractive it is. A low EV/EBITDA ratio could imply that a stock is potentially undervalued and vice versa.

EV/EBITDA also takes into account the debt on a company’s balance sheet that P/E ratio ignores. For this reason, EV/EBITDA is usually used to value possible acquisition targets. Stocks with a low EV/EBITDA multiple could be seen as potential takeover candidates.

Moreover, P/E can’t be used to value a loss-making firm. A company’s earnings are also subject to accounting estimates and management manipulation. In contrast, EV/EBITDA is less open to manipulation and can also be used to value companies that are making loss but are EBITDA-positive.

EV/EBITDA is also a useful yardstick in measuring the value of companies that are highly leveraged and have a high degree of depreciation. It also allows comparison of companies with different debt levels.

However, EV/EBITDA is not without its flaws and it alone can’t conclusively determine a stock’s inherent potential and future performance. It varies across industries and is generally not appropriate while comparing stocks in different industries given their diverse capital spending requirements.

Therefore, instead of solely banking on EV/EBITDA, you can club it with the other major ratios such as price-to-book (P/B), P/E and price-to-sales (P/S) to screen true value stocks.

For the rest of this Screen of the Week article please visit Zacks.com at: https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/311385/5-value-picks-flaunting-impressive-evebitda-ratios

Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.

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