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Should Value Investors Buy Manulife Financial Corp (MFC) 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, value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. Value investors rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.

In addition to the Zacks Rank, investors looking for stocks with specific traits can utilize our Style Scores system. Of course, value investors will be most interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with "A" grades for Value and high Zacks Ranks are among the best value stocks available at any given moment.

One company value investors might notice is Manulife Financial Corp (MFC - Free Report) . MFC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is MFC's P/B ratio of 0.96. 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 solid versus its industry's average P/B of 1.37. Over the past year, MFC's P/B has been as high as 1.02 and as low as 0.77, with a median of 0.89.

Finally, investors should note that MFC has a P/CF ratio of 6.59. 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 10. Over the past year, MFC's P/CF has been as high as 6.84 and as low as 3.90, with a median of 5.58.

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


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