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Are Investors Undervaluing American Axle & Manufacturing (AXL) 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.

In addition to the Zacks Rank, investors looking for stocks with specific traits can utilize our Style Scores system. Of course, value investors will be most interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with "A" grades for Value and high Zacks Ranks are among the best value stocks available at any given moment.

One company value investors might notice is American Axle & Manufacturing (AXL - Free Report) . AXL is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 5.38 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 10.66. Over the past 52 weeks, AXL's Forward P/E has been as high as 5.38 and as low as 3.21, with a median of 4.40.

Investors will also notice that AXL has a PEG ratio of 0.67. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. AXL's PEG compares to its industry's average PEG of 1.08. AXL's PEG has been as high as 0.67 and as low as 0.40, with a median of 0.54, all within the past year.

We should also highlight that AXL has a P/B ratio of 1.26. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with 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 2.57. Over the past year, AXL's P/B has been as high as 1.26 and as low as 0.63, with a median of 1.05.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. This is a prefered metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. AXL has a P/S ratio of 0.26. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.41.

Finally, our model also underscores that AXL has a P/CF ratio of 1.96. This data point considers a firm's operating cash flow and is frequently used to find companies that are undervalued when considering their solid cash outlook. This company's current P/CF looks solid when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 6.26. Over the past year, AXL's P/CF has been as high as 2.49 and as low as 1.30, with a median of 2.08.

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


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