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Are Investors Undervaluing Merchants Bancorp (MBIN) 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 fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

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.

One company to watch right now is Merchants Bancorp (MBIN - Free Report) . MBIN is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), as well as an A grade for Value. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 6.40, which compares to its industry's average of 9.06. MBIN's Forward P/E has been as high as 7.35 and as low as 4.82, with a median of 5.82, all within the past year.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is MBIN's P/B ratio of 1.43. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This company's current P/B looks solid when compared to its industry's average P/B of 1.55. Over the past 12 months, MBIN's P/B has been as high as 1.66 and as low as 1.07, with a median of 1.22.

Value investors also love the P/S ratio, which is calculated by simply dividing a stock's price with the company's sales. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. MBIN has a P/S ratio of 2.19. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 2.58.

Finally, our model also underscores that MBIN has a P/CF ratio of 5.91. 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. MBIN's current P/CF looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 13.08. Over the past year, MBIN's P/CF has been as high as 6.06 and as low as 3.42, with a median of 4.81.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in Merchants Bancorp'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, MBIN looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.


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