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Are Investors Undervaluing Reinsurance Group of America (RGA) Right Now?

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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.

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 Reinsurance Group of America (RGA - Free Report) . RGA is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), as well as a Value grade of A.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is RGA's P/B ratio of 1.28. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to 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 1.49. Over the past 12 months, RGA's P/B has been as high as 2.66 and as low as 0.79, with a median of 1.48.

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. RGA has a P/S ratio of 0.6. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.67.

Finally, we should also recognize that RGA has a P/CF ratio of 10.98. 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. RGA's current P/CF looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 11.09. RGA's P/CF has been as high as 34.25 and as low as 9.81, with a median of 16.96, all within the past year.

These are just a handful of the figures considered in Reinsurance Group of America's great Value grade. Still, they help show that the stock is likely being undervalued at the moment. Add this to the strength of its earnings outlook, and we can clearly see that RGA is an impressive value stock right now.


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