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Are Investors Undervaluing Plains All American Pipeline (PAA) 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.

Of these, value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. 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 stock to keep an eye on is Plains All American Pipeline (PAA - Free Report) . PAA is currently holding a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 12.27, which compares to its industry's average of 12.58. Over the last 12 months, PAA's Forward P/E has been as high as 14.72 and as low as 10.60, with a median of 12.64.

We should also highlight that PAA has a P/B ratio of 1.1. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This stock's P/B looks solid versus its industry's average P/B of 2.19. PAA's P/B has been as high as 1.37 and as low as 1.02, with a median of 1.14, over the past year.

Finally, our model also underscores that PAA has a P/CF ratio of 6.33. 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 8.77. Within the past 12 months, PAA's P/CF has been as high as 8.21 and as low as 5.47, with a median of 6.45.

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

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