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Should Value Investors Buy Ardmore Shipping (ASC) Stock?

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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.

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.

Zacks has developed the innovative Style Scores system to highlight stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will be interested in stocks with great grades in the "Value" category. When paired with a high Zacks Rank, "A" grades in the Value category are among the strongest value stocks on the market today.

One stock to keep an eye on is Ardmore Shipping (ASC - Free Report) . ASC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A.

We should also highlight that ASC has a P/B ratio of 0.68. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. ASC's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 1.32. Over the past year, ASC's P/B has been as high as 1.43 and as low as 0.57, with a median of 0.78.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is calculated as price divided by sales. This is a popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. ASC has a P/S ratio of 1.08. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.4.

Finally, our model also underscores that ASC has a P/CF ratio of 3.07. 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. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 4.63. Within the past 12 months, ASC's P/CF has been as high as 4.97 and as low as 2.25, with a median of 2.94.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in Ardmore Shipping's strong Value grade, but they help show that the stock is likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, ASC looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.


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