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Should Value Investors Buy Manulife Financial (MFC) 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.

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 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.

Manulife Financial (MFC - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. MFC is currently holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and a Value grade of A.

We should also highlight that MFC has a P/B ratio of 1.02. 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. MFC's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 1.28. Over the past year, MFC's P/B has been as high as 1.18 and as low as 0.69, with a median of 0.97.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. This is a popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. MFC has a P/S ratio of 0.64. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.81.

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


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