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Are Investors Undervaluing Encore Capital Group (ECPG) 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.

Looking at the history of these trends, perhaps none is more beloved than value investing. This strategy simply looks to identify companies that are being undervalued by the broader market. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

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 company to watch right now is Encore Capital Group (ECPG - Free Report) . ECPG is currently holding a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 5.46 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 8.28. Over the past 52 weeks, ECPG's Forward P/E has been as high as 9.37 and as low as 4.14, with a median of 5.49.

Value investors also frequently use the P/S ratio. This metric is found by dividing a stock's price with the company's revenue. This is a popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. ECPG has a P/S ratio of 0.83. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.21.

These are just a handful of the figures considered in Encore Capital Group's great Value grade. Still, they help show that the stock is likely being undervalued at the moment. Add this to the strength of its earnings outlook, and we can clearly see that ECPG is an impressive value stock right now.

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