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Are Investors Undervaluing Compass Minerals (CMP) 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 fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

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.

Compass Minerals (CMP - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. CMP is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.08. This compares to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.99. Over the last 12 months, CMP's Forward P/E has been as high as 27.54 and as low as 10.21, with a median of 14.95.

Finally, our model also underscores that CMP has a P/CF ratio of 7.59. 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. CMP's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 10.75. CMP's P/CF has been as high as 10.83 and as low as 5.97, with a median of 9.39, all within the past year.

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


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