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Should Value Investors Buy Lear (LEA) 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, 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 company to watch right now is Lear (LEA - Free Report) . LEA is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 11.78, which compares to its industry's average of 16.79. Over the past 52 weeks, LEA's Forward P/E has been as high as 21.67 and as low as 4.85, with a median of 12.01.

LEA is also sporting a PEG ratio of 0.96. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. LEA's PEG compares to its industry's average PEG of 1.43. Within the past year, LEA's PEG has been as high as 4.19 and as low as 0.92, with a median of 2.50.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is LEA's P/B ratio of 2.06. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This company's current P/B looks solid when compared to its industry's average P/B of 2.41. LEA's P/B has been as high as 2.11 and as low as 0.94, with a median of 1.69, over the past year.

Value investors also frequently use the P/S ratio. This metric is found by dividing a stock's price with the company's revenue. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. LEA has a P/S ratio of 0.52. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.64.

These figures are just a handful of the metrics value investors tend to look at, but they help show that Lear is likely being undervalued right now. Considering this, as well as the strength of its earnings outlook, LEA feels like a great value stock at the moment.


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