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Are Investors Undervaluing Assurant (AIZ) 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, value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. 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.

Assurant (AIZ - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. AIZ is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value.

We should also highlight that AIZ has a P/B ratio of 2.06. 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 2.43. Over the past year, AIZ's P/B has been as high as 2.06 and as low as 1.40, with a median of 1.70.

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. AIZ has a P/S ratio of 0.88. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.01.

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


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