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Are Investors Undervaluing United States Cellular (USM) Right Now?

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Here at Zacks, we focus on our proven ranking system, which places an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, to find winning stocks. But we also understand that investors develop their own strategies, so we are constantly looking at the latest trends in value, growth, and momentum to find strong companies for our readers.

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 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.

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

We should also highlight that USM has a P/B ratio of 0.65. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This stock's P/B looks solid versus its industry's average P/B of 1.69. Over the past 12 months, USM's P/B has been as high as 0.74 and as low as 0.52, with a median of 0.61.

Value investors also frequently use the P/S ratio. This metric is found by dividing a stock's price with the company's revenue. 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 0.7. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.59.

Finally, investors should note that USM has a P/CF ratio of 3.13. 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. This company's current P/CF looks solid when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 5.58. Over the past year, USM's P/CF has been as high as 3.86 and as low as 2.67, with a median of 3.05.

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


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