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Are Investors Undervaluing Quanex Building Products (NX) Right Now?

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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.

Considering these trends, value investing is clearly one of the most preferred ways to find strong stocks in any type of market. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

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 Quanex Building Products (NX - Free Report) . NX is currently holding a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) and a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 11.97 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 16.82. Over the last 12 months, NX's Forward P/E has been as high as 15.27 and as low as 11.61, with a median of 12.90.

We also note that NX holds a PEG ratio of 0.85. 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. NX's PEG compares to its industry's average PEG of 1.64. Within the past year, NX's PEG has been as high as 1.99 and as low as 0.85, with a median of 1.68.

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. NX has a P/S ratio of 0.97. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.59.

Finally, investors should note that NX has a P/CF ratio of 8.25. 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. NX's current P/CF looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 24.58. Within the past 12 months, NX's P/CF has been as high as 9.84 and as low as 5.99, with a median of 7.97.

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


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