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Should Value Investors Buy Rent-A-Center (RCII) Stock?

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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 tried-and-true metrics and fundamental analysis to find companies that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

In addition to the Zacks Rank, investors looking for stocks with specific traits can utilize our Style Scores system. Of course, value investors will be most interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with "A" grades for Value and high Zacks Ranks are among the best value stocks available at any given moment.

One company value investors might notice is Rent-A-Center . RCII is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock has a Forward P/E ratio of 8.95. This compares to its industry's average Forward P/E of 11.80. Over the past 52 weeks, RCII's Forward P/E has been as high as 13.19 and as low as 4.44, with a median of 10.50.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. This is a prefered metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. RCII has a P/S ratio of 0.61. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.75.

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

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