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Are Investors Undervaluing Herc Holdings (HRI) Right Now?

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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.

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 Herc Holdings (HRI - Free Report) . HRI is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and an A for Value. The stock holds a P/E ratio of 12.24, while its industry has an average P/E of 14.82. Over the past 52 weeks, HRI's Forward P/E has been as high as 26.99 and as low as 7.77, with a median of 11.71.

Investors will also notice that HRI has a PEG ratio of 0.93. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. HRI's industry currently sports an average PEG of 1.15. Within the past year, HRI's PEG has been as high as 4.54 and as low as 0.88, with a median of 1.07.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is HRI's P/B ratio of 2.07. 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. HRI's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 4.09. Over the past 12 months, HRI's P/B has been as high as 4.60 and as low as 1.92, with a median of 2.82.

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. HRI has a P/S ratio of 0.92. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.19.

These are just a handful of the figures considered in Herc Holdings'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 HRI is an impressive value stock right now.

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