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Should Value Investors Buy Financial Institutions (FISI) 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 use a variety of methods, including tried-and-true valuation metrics, to find these stocks.

Zacks has developed the innovative Style Scores system to highlight stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will be interested in stocks with great grades in the "Value" category. When paired with a high Zacks Rank, "A" grades in the Value category are among the strongest value stocks on the market today.

One company value investors might notice is Financial Institutions (FISI - Free Report) . FISI is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as an A grade for Value. The stock holds a P/E ratio of 9.77, while its industry has an average P/E of 10.62. FISI's Forward P/E has been as high as 14.41 and as low as 6.54, with a median of 8.56, all within the past year.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. FISI has a P/S ratio of 2.3. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 2.83.

Finally, investors should note that FISI has a P/CF ratio of 9.87. This data point considers a firm's operating cash flow and is frequently used to find companies that are undervalued when considering their solid cash outlook. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 11.35. Over the past year, FISI's P/CF has been as high as 10.58 and as low as 4.48, with a median of 5.79.

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


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