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Is Yamana Gold (AUY) a Great Value Stock Right Now?

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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 rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.

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 to watch right now is Yamana Gold . AUY is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as an A grade for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 12.85 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 14.94. Over the past year, AUY's Forward P/E has been as high as 20.29 and as low as 10.88, with a median of 14.03.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is AUY's P/B ratio of 0.78. 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. AUY's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 1.40. AUY's P/B has been as high as 1.42 and as low as 0.74, with a median of 0.90, over the past year.

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. AUY has a P/S ratio of 2.34. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 2.37.

Finally, we should also recognize that AUY has a P/CF ratio of 6.98. This data point considers a firm's operating cash flow and is frequently used to find companies that are undervalued when considering their solid cash outlook. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 7.41. Over the past year, AUY's P/CF has been as high as 11.44 and as low as 6.45, with a median of 7.91.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in Yamana Gold's strong Value grade, but they help show that the stock is likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, AUY looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.

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