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Are Investors Undervaluing The Hanover Insurance Group (THG) Right Now?

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Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore strong picks.

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 company to watch right now is The Hanover Insurance Group (THG - Free Report) . THG is currently holding a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 10.86 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 28.38. Over the past year, THG's Forward P/E has been as high as 13.52 and as low as 10.12, with a median of 11.25.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is calculated as price divided by 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. THG has a P/S ratio of 1.22. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.43.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in The Hanover Insurance Group's strong Value grade, but they help show that the stock is likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, THG looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.

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