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Are Investors Undervaluing Northwest Pipe Company (NWPX) 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 fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

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.

One stock to keep an eye on is Northwest Pipe Company (NWPX - Free Report) . NWPX is currently holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 9.47, which compares to its industry's average of 10.64. Over the past year, NWPX's Forward P/E has been as high as 12.11 and as low as 8.21, with a median of 10.43.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that NWPX has a P/CF ratio of 6.58. 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 company's current P/CF looks solid when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 7.96. Within the past 12 months, NWPX's P/CF has been as high as 12.48 and as low as 6.46, with a median of 8.35.

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


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