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Should Value Investors Buy Alerus Financial (ALRS) 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.

Considering these trends, value investing is clearly one of the most preferred ways to find strong stocks in any type of market. Value investors rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.

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.

One company to watch right now is Alerus Financial (ALRS - Free Report) . ALRS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock holds a P/E ratio of 9.48, while its industry has an average P/E of 21.56. Over the past year, ALRS's Forward P/E has been as high as 19.71 and as low as 7.50, with a median of 9.47.

We should also highlight that ALRS has a P/B ratio of 1.1. 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 stock's P/B looks attractive against its industry's average P/B of 3.15. Over the past 12 months, ALRS's P/B has been as high as 1.60 and as low as 0.80, with a median of 1.07.

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. ALRS has a P/S ratio of 1.51. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 2.53.

Finally, investors should note that ALRS has a P/CF ratio of 10.27. 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. ALRS's current P/CF looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 15.82. Over the past 52 weeks, ALRS's P/CF has been as high as 41.87 and as low as 9.07, with a median of 13.60.

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


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