Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Are Investors Undervaluing Hanmi Financial (HAFC) Right Now?

Read MoreHide Full Article

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 tried-and-true metrics and fundamental analysis to find companies that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

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 company value investors might notice is Hanmi Financial (HAFC - Free Report) . HAFC is currently holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 6.39 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 7.46. Over the past year, HAFC's Forward P/E has been as high as 8.77 and as low as 5.07, with a median of 7.10.

Another notable valuation metric for HAFC is its P/B ratio of 0.74. 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. HAFC's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 0.95. Within the past 52 weeks, HAFC's P/B has been as high as 1.35 and as low as 0.63, with a median of 0.88.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by 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. HAFC has a P/S ratio of 1.32. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.8.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that HAFC has a P/CF ratio of 4.51. 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 5.91. Within the past 12 months, HAFC's P/CF has been as high as 6.71 and as low as 3.68, with a median of 5.23.

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


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Hanmi Financial Corporation (HAFC) - free report >>

Published in