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Are Investors Undervaluing Northeast Community Bancorp (NECB) 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, 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.

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 stock to keep an eye on is Northeast Community Bancorp (NECB - Free Report) . NECB is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 6.68 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 8.79. NECB's Forward P/E has been as high as 10.12 and as low as 6.28, with a median of 7.47, all within the past year.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is NECB's P/B ratio of 0.89. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to 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 1.09. Over the past 12 months, NECB's P/B has been as high as 1.41 and as low as 0.84, with a median of 1.02.

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 popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. NECB has a P/S ratio of 1.73. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.82.

Finally, investors should note that NECB has a P/CF ratio of 6.39. This metric focuses on a firm's operating cash flow and is often used to find stocks that are undervalued based on the strength of their cash outlook. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 16.26. NECB's P/CF has been as high as 8.35 and as low as 5.95, with a median of 6.71, all within the past year.

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


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