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Should Value Investors Buy Reinsurance Group of America (RGA) 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.

Reinsurance Group of America (RGA - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. RGA is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock has a Forward P/E ratio of 7.54. This compares to its industry's average Forward P/E of 8.11. Over the past 52 weeks, RGA's Forward P/E has been as high as 10.24 and as low as 7.17, with a median of 8.48.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is RGA's P/B ratio of 1.02. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. RGA's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 1.86. RGA's P/B has been as high as 1.47 and as low as 0.96, with a median of 1.18, over the past year.

Value investors also love the P/S ratio, which is calculated by simply dividing a stock's price with the company's sales. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. RGA has a P/S ratio of 0.56. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.74.

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

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