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Should Value Investors Buy Intercorp Financial Services (IFS) 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.

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.

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 Intercorp Financial Services (IFS - Free Report) . IFS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 7.68, which compares to its industry's average of 16.97. Over the past year, IFS's Forward P/E has been as high as 10.57 and as low as 6.00, with a median of 7.42.

We should also highlight that IFS has a P/B ratio of 1.46. 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. IFS's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 3.24. Over the past 12 months, IFS's P/B has been as high as 1.53 and as low as 1.04, with a median of 1.26.

Value investors will likely look at more than just these metrics, but the above data helps show that Intercorp Financial Services is likely undervalued currently. And when considering the strength of its earnings outlook, IFS sticks out as one of the market's strongest value stocks.

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