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

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The proven Zacks Rank system focuses on earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find winning stocks. Nevertheless, we know that our readers all have their own perspectives, so we are always looking at the latest trends in value, growth, and momentum to find strong picks.

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 stock to keep an eye on 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 a P/E ratio of 9.98, which compares to its industry's average of 20.17. Over the last 12 months, UNFI's Forward P/E has been as high as 15 and as low as 4.35, with a median of 9.43.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is UNFI's P/B ratio of 1.67. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with 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 2.39. Within the past 52 weeks, UNFI's P/B has been as high as 1.79 and as low as 0.67, with a median of 0.90.

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


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