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Should Value Investors Buy United Natural Foods (UNFI) Stock?

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Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore strong picks.

Looking at the history of these trends, perhaps none is more beloved than value investing. This strategy simply looks to identify companies that are being undervalued by the broader market. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

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 Natural Foods (UNFI - Free Report) . UNFI is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 10.74 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 18.81. Over the past year, UNFI's Forward P/E has been as high as 16.96 and as low as 4.35, with a median of 8.55.

Another notable valuation metric for UNFI is its P/B ratio of 1.68. 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. Over the past 12 months, UNFI's P/B has been as high as 1.79 and as low as 0.26, with a median of 0.83.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in United Natural Foods's strong Value grade, but they help show that the stock is likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, UNFI looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.


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