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Are Investors Undervaluing American Public Education (APEI) Right Now?

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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, value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

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.

American Public Education (APEI - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. APEI is currently holding a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and a Value grade of A.

Another notable valuation metric for APEI is its P/B ratio of 2.09. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against 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 3.46. Over the past 12 months, APEI's P/B has been as high as 2.12 and as low as 0.87, with a median of 1.46.

Value investors also frequently use the P/S ratio. This metric is found by dividing a stock's price with the company's revenue. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. APEI has a P/S ratio of 0.87. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.56.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in American Public Education'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, APEI looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.


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