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Is MidWestOne Financial Group (MOFG) a Great Value Stock 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.

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 use a variety of methods, including tried-and-true valuation metrics, to find these stocks.

Luckily, Zacks has developed its own Style Scores system in an effort to find stocks with specific traits. Value investors will be interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with both "A" grades in the Value category and high Zacks Ranks are among the strongest value stocks on the market right now.

MidWestOne Financial Group (MOFG - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. MOFG is currently holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 8.32 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 9.94. Over the last 12 months, MOFG's Forward P/E has been as high as 10.70 and as low as 7.33, with a median of 8.82.

We should also highlight that MOFG has a P/B ratio of 1.02. 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 solid versus its industry's average P/B of 2.02. Within the past 52 weeks, MOFG's P/B has been as high as 1.04 and as low as 0.83, with a median of 0.94.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. This is a prefered metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. MOFG has a P/S ratio of 2.26. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 2.82.

Finally, investors should note that MOFG has a P/CF ratio of 7.87. 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 15.49. MOFG's P/CF has been as high as 7.92 and as low as 6.31, with a median of 7.04, all within the past year.

These figures are just a handful of the metrics value investors tend to look at, but they help show that MidWestOne Financial Group is likely being undervalued right now. Considering this, as well as the strength of its earnings outlook, MOFG feels like a great value stock at the moment.


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