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Are Investors Undervaluing Navios Maritime Partners (NMM) Right Now?

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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.

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.

Navios Maritime Partners (NMM - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. NMM is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 1.82, which compares to its industry's average of 4.37. Over the last 12 months, NMM's Forward P/E has been as high as 3.09 and as low as 1.28, with a median of 1.98.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is NMM's P/B ratio of 0.51. 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. This stock's P/B looks attractive against its industry's average P/B of 1.24. NMM's P/B has been as high as 0.62 and as low as 0.27, with a median of 0.42, 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. NMM has a P/S ratio of 1.06. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.53.

Finally, our model also underscores that NMM has a P/CF ratio of 1.52. This figure highlights a company's operating cash flow and can be used to find firms that are undervalued when considering their impressive cash outlook. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 3.45. NMM's P/CF has been as high as 2.74 and as low as 1.14, with a median of 1.65, all within the past year.

Investors could also keep in mind Pangaea Logistics Solutions (PANL - Free Report) , an Transportation - Shipping stock with a Zacks Rank of # 1 (Strong Buy) and Value grade of A.

Pangaea Logistics Solutions sports a P/B ratio of 0.99 as well; this compares to its industry's price-to-book ratio of 1.24. In the past 52 weeks, PANL's P/B has been as high as 1.04, as low as 0.56, with a median of 0.77.

These figures are just a handful of the metrics value investors tend to look at, but they help show that Navios Maritime Partners and Pangaea Logistics Solutions are likely being undervalued right now. Considering this, as well as the strength of its earnings outlook, NMM and PANL feels like a great value stock at the moment.


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