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Should Value Investors Buy El Pollo Loco (LOCO) 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 rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.

In addition to the Zacks Rank, investors looking for stocks with specific traits can utilize our Style Scores system. Of course, value investors will be most interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with "A" grades for Value and high Zacks Ranks are among the best value stocks available at any given moment.

One company value investors might notice is El Pollo Loco (LOCO - Free Report) . LOCO is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as an A grade for Value. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 14.69, which compares to its industry's average of 22.73. Over the past 52 weeks, LOCO's Forward P/E has been as high as 16.11 and as low as 9.75, with a median of 12.39.

Value investors also love the P/S ratio, which is calculated by simply dividing a stock's price with the company's sales. This is a prefered metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. LOCO has a P/S ratio of 0.7. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.84.

Finally, we should also recognize that LOCO has a P/CF ratio of 7.89. This data point considers a firm's operating cash flow and is frequently used to find companies that are undervalued when considering their solid cash outlook. LOCO's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 17.14. Over the past 52 weeks, LOCO's P/CF has been as high as 9.95 and as low as 6.06, with a median of 7.12.

Value investors will likely look at more than just these metrics, but the above data helps show that El Pollo Loco is likely undervalued currently. And when considering the strength of its earnings outlook, LOCO sticks out at as one of the market's strongest value stocks.


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