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Should Value Investors Buy Haverty Furniture (HVT) Stock?

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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.

Considering these trends, value investing is clearly one of the most preferred ways to find strong stocks in any type of market. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

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 Haverty Furniture (HVT - Free Report) . HVT is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), as well as an A grade for Value. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 18.77, which compares to its industry's average of 22.28. HVT's Forward P/E has been as high as 30.88 and as low as -253.50, with a median of 19.05, all within the past year.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is HVT's P/B ratio of 2.91. 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 stock's P/B looks solid versus its industry's average P/B of 5.04. Within the past 52 weeks, HVT's P/B has been as high as 2.91 and as low as 0.85, with a median of 1.62.

Value investors also love the P/S ratio, which is calculated by simply dividing a stock's price with the company's 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. HVT has a P/S ratio of 1. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.29.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that HVT has a P/CF ratio of 9.74. 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. HVT's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 21.94. Within the past 12 months, HVT's P/CF has been as high as 9.84 and as low as 5.70, with a median of 8.27.

These are just a handful of the figures considered in Haverty Furniture'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 HVT is an impressive value stock right now.


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