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Should Value Investors Buy Summit Financial Group (SMMF) Stock?

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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.

Of these, value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. 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.

Summit Financial Group (SMMF - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. SMMF is currently holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 9.55 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 12.53. Over the past year, SMMF's Forward P/E has been as high as 10.07 and as low as 7.36, with a median of 8.60.

Another notable valuation metric for SMMF is its P/B ratio of 1.17. 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 stock's P/B looks attractive against its industry's average P/B of 1.82. Within the past 52 weeks, SMMF's P/B has been as high as 1.25 and as low as 0.92, with a median of 1.06.

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. SMMF has a P/S ratio of 2.55. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 3.24.

Finally, we should also recognize that SMMF has a P/CF ratio of 7.13. 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. SMMF's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 16.33. Within the past 12 months, SMMF's P/CF has been as high as 9.36 and as low as 5.74, with a median of 6.97.

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


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