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Should Value Investors Buy Innoviva (INVA) 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.

One stock to keep an eye on is Innoviva (INVA - Free Report) . INVA is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), as well as an A grade for Value. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 10.12, which compares to its industry's average of 17.64. Over the last 12 months, INVA's Forward P/E has been as high as 58.15 and as low as 10.12, with a median of 37.82.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is calculated as price divided by sales. This is a preferred metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. INVA has a P/S ratio of 3.46. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 4.23.

Finally, our model also underscores that INVA has a P/CF ratio of 20.06. 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. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 29.69. Over the past 52 weeks, INVA's P/CF has been as high as 24.45 and as low as -77.10, with a median of 14.41.

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

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