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Are Investors Undervaluing United States Cellular (USM) 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.

Considering these trends, value investing is clearly one of the most preferred ways to find strong stocks in any type of market. Value investors rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.

Luckily, Zacks has developed its own Style Scores system in an effort to find stocks with specific traits. Value investors will be interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with both "A" grades in the Value category and high Zacks Ranks are among the strongest value stocks on the market right now.

One company value investors might notice is United States Cellular (USM - Free Report) . USM is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) and an A for Value.

We should also highlight that USM has a P/B ratio of 0.62. 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 1.69. USM's P/B has been as high as 0.74 and as low as 0.52, with a median of 0.61, over the past year.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. This is a popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. USM has a P/S ratio of 0.68. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.46.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that USM has a P/CF ratio of 2.99. This metric takes into account a company's operating cash flow and can be used to find stocks that are undervalued based on their solid cash outlook. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 5.58. USM's P/CF has been as high as 3.86 and as low as 2.67, with a median of 3.05, all within the past year.

These are just a handful of the figures considered in United States Cellular's great Value grade. Still, they help show that the stock is likely being undervalued at the moment. Add this to the strength of its earnings outlook, and we can clearly see that USM is an impressive value stock right now.


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