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Should Value Investors Buy CI Financial (CIXX) 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, 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 tried-and-true metrics and fundamental analysis to find companies that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

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.

CI Financial is a stock many investors are watching right now. CIXX 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 3.75 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 10.27. Over the past year, CIXX's Forward P/E has been as high as 8.61 and as low as 3.38, with a median of 4.46.

Investors will also notice that CIXX has a PEG ratio of 0.47. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. CIXX's industry currently sports an average PEG of 0.88. Over the past 52 weeks, CIXX's PEG has been as high as 1.08 and as low as 0.42, with a median of 0.56.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is CIXX's P/B ratio of 1.40. 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 attractive against its industry's average P/B of 2.88. CIXX's P/B has been as high as 3.62 and as low as 1.29, with a median of 1.71, 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 popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. CIXX has a P/S ratio of 0.94. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.92.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that CIXX has a P/CF ratio of 4.54. 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 company's current P/CF looks solid when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 13.32. Over the past year, CIXX's P/CF has been as high as 10.50 and as low as 3.73, with a median of 5.05.

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

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