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Are Investors Undervaluing GMS (GMS) Right Now?

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Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore 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 use tried-and-true metrics and fundamental analysis to find companies that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

On top of the Zacks Rank, investors can also look at our innovative Style Scores system to find stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will want to focus on the "Value" category. Stocks with high Zacks Ranks and "A" grades for Value will be some of the highest-quality value stocks on the market today.

One stock to keep an eye on is GMS (GMS - Free Report) . GMS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 9.64 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 20.28. Over the past year, GMS's Forward P/E has been as high as 13.90 and as low as 7.25, with a median of 10.16.

Value investors also love the P/S ratio, which is calculated by simply dividing a stock's price with the company's sales. This is a prefered metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. GMS has a P/S ratio of 0.62. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.84.

Finally, we should also recognize that GMS has a P/CF ratio of 9.43. 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. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 16.88. Over the past 52 weeks, GMS's P/CF has been as high as 13.96 and as low as 6.52, with a median of 9.06.

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


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