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Is Encompass Health (EHC) Stock Undervalued 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 rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.

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 to watch right now is Encompass Health (EHC - Free Report) . EHC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 20.04 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 21.40. Over the last 12 months, EHC's Forward P/E has been as high as 20.79 and as low as 16.27, with a median of 18.88.

We also note that EHC holds a PEG ratio of 1.28. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. EHC's industry has an average PEG of 1.78 right now. EHC's PEG has been as high as 1.77 and as low as 1.20, with a median of 1.40, all within the past year.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is EHC's P/B ratio of 3.64. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus 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 3.68. Within the past 52 weeks, EHC's P/B has been as high as 3.71 and as low as 2.83, with a median of 3.31.

These are just a handful of the figures considered in Encompass Health'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 EHC is an impressive value stock right now.


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