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Are Investors Undervaluing Cowen Group (COWN) 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, value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. Value investors use a variety of methods, including tried-and-true valuation metrics, to find these stocks.

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.

Cowen Group is a stock many investors are watching right now. COWN 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 9.58 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 12.96. Over the past year, COWN's Forward P/E has been as high as 16.17 and as low as 2.76, with a median of 4.90.

Finally, our model also underscores that COWN has a P/CF ratio of 7.93. This metric takes into account a company's operating cash flow and can be used to find stocks that are undervalued based on their solid cash outlook. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 17.60. COWN's P/CF has been as high as 7.96 and as low as 2.50, with a median of 5.30, all within the past year.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in Cowen Group's strong Value grade, but they help show that the stock is likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, COWN looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.

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