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Should Value Investors Buy Oshkosh (OSK) Stock?

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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 value investors might notice is Oshkosh (OSK - Free Report) . OSK is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 10.33 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 20.38. Over the past year, OSK's Forward P/E has been as high as 18.27 and as low as 9.52, with a median of 12.09.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is OSK's P/B ratio of 1.97. 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 company's current P/B looks solid when compared to its industry's average P/B of 2.54. Over the past year, OSK's P/B has been as high as 2.18 and as low as 1.47, with a median of 1.77.

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. OSK has a P/S ratio of 0.74. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.83.

Finally, we should also recognize that OSK has a P/CF ratio of 10.64. 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. OSK's current P/CF looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 29.52. Over the past year, OSK's P/CF has been as high as 24.14 and as low as 8.63, with a median of 12.72.

These are just a handful of the figures considered in Oshkosh'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 OSK is an impressive value stock right now.


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