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Are Investors Undervaluing These Basic Materials Stocks 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.

Of these, perhaps no stock market trend is more popular than value investing, which is a strategy that has proven to be successful in all sorts of market environments. Value investors rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.

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 company to watch right now is Acerinox (ANIOY - Free Report) . ANIOY 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 3.79 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 6. Over the past year, ANIOY's Forward P/E has been as high as 11.63 and as low as 3.37, with a median of 6.44.

Another notable valuation metric for ANIOY is its P/B ratio of 1.43. 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 1.90. Over the past 12 months, ANIOY's P/B has been as high as 2.16 and as low as 1.29, with a median of 1.68.

Value investors also frequently use the P/S ratio. This metric is found by dividing a stock's price with the company's revenue. This is a prefered metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. ANIOY has a P/S ratio of 0.45. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.48.

Another great Steel - Producers stock you could consider is ThyssenKrupp (TKAMY - Free Report) , which is a # 2 (Buy) stock with a Value Score of A.

ThyssenKrupp also has a P/B ratio of 0.43 compared to its industry's price-to-book ratio of 1.90. Over the past year, its P/B ratio has been as high as 0.71, as low as 0.40, with a median of 0.51.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in Acerinox and ThyssenKrupp strong Value grade, but they help show that the stocks are likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, ANIOY and TKAMY look like an impressive value stock at the moment.


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