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Should Value Investors Buy USA Truck (USAK) 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.

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.

In addition to the Zacks Rank, investors looking for stocks with specific traits can utilize our Style Scores system. Of course, value investors will be most interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with "A" grades for Value and high Zacks Ranks are among the best value stocks available at any given moment.

USA Truck is a stock many investors are watching right now. USAK is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock holds a P/E ratio of 7.31, while its industry has an average P/E of 21.35. USAK's Forward P/E has been as high as 53.88 and as low as 6.39, with a median of 9.90, all within the past year.

Another notable valuation metric for USAK is its P/B ratio of 1.62. 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 3.79. Within the past 52 weeks, USAK's P/B has been as high as 2.09 and as low as 0.79, with a median of 1.22.

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

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