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Should Value Investors Buy Asbury Automotive Group (ABG) 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.

Luckily, Zacks has developed its own Style Scores system in an effort to find stocks with specific traits. Value investors will be interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with both "A" grades in the Value category and high Zacks Ranks are among the strongest value stocks on the market right now.

One company value investors might notice is Asbury Automotive Group (ABG - Free Report) . ABG is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 10.46 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 10.56. Over the last 12 months, ABG's Forward P/E has been as high as 10.82 and as low as 7.37, with a median of 8.66.

ABG is also sporting a PEG ratio of 0.73. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. ABG's industry has an average PEG of 1.61 right now. Over the last 12 months, ABG's PEG has been as high as 0.76 and as low as 0.47, with a median of 0.61.

Finally, we should also recognize that ABG has a P/CF ratio of 8.33. This metric takes into account a company's operating cash flow and can be used to find stocks that are undervalued based on their solid cash outlook. This company's current P/CF looks solid when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 8.47. Over the past year, ABG's P/CF has been as high as 8.56 and as low as 5.60, with a median of 6.65.

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


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