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Should Value Investors Buy Crawford & Company (CRD.B) Stock?

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Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore strong picks.

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 a variety of methods, including tried-and-true valuation metrics, to find these stocks.

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.

Crawford & Company (CRD.B - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. CRD.B is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 7.64 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 18.73. CRD.B's Forward P/E has been as high as 9.50 and as low as 6.36, with a median of 7.63, all within the past year.

Investors should also recognize that CRD.B has a P/B ratio of 2.92. 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 3.49. CRD.B's P/B has been as high as 3.15 and as low as 1.37, with a median of 1.80, over the past year.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by 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. CRD.B has a P/S ratio of 0.32. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.79.

If you're looking for another solid Business - Services value stock, take a look at Mitie Group (MITFY - Free Report) . MITFY is a # 2 (Buy) stock with a Value score of A.

Mitie Group also has a P/B ratio of 3.23 compared to its industry's price-to-book ratio of 3.49. Over the past year, its P/B ratio has been as high as 3.40, as low as 1.63, with a median of 2.55.

These figures are just a handful of the metrics value investors tend to look at, but they help show that Crawford & Company and Mitie Group are likely being undervalued right now. Considering this, as well as the strength of its earnings outlook, CRD.B and MITFY feels like a great value stock at the moment.


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