Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Are Investors Undervaluing LouisianaPacific (LPX) Right Now?

Read MoreHide Full Article

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.

Looking at the history of these trends, perhaps none is more beloved than value investing. This strategy simply looks to identify companies that are being undervalued by the broader market. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

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 value investors might notice is LouisianaPacific (LPX - Free Report) . LPX is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 7.15 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 15.37. Over the last 12 months, LPX's Forward P/E has been as high as 9.60 and as low as 5.12, with a median of 7.40.

Value investors also love the P/S ratio, which is calculated by simply dividing a stock's price with the company's sales. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. LPX has a P/S ratio of 1.31. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.8.

Finally, we should also recognize that LPX has a P/CF ratio of 4.58. This metric focuses on a firm's operating cash flow and is often used to find stocks that are undervalued based on the strength of their cash outlook. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 12.62. Over the past year, LPX's P/CF has been as high as 8.77 and as low as 3.38, with a median of 4.23.

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


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (LPX) - free report >>

Published in