Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Should Value Investors Buy PetroChina (PTR) Stock?

Read MoreHide Full Article

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 rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.

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 stock to keep an eye on is PetroChina . PTR is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.21. This compares to its industry's average Forward P/E of 15.89. Over the past year, PTR's Forward P/E has been as high as 14.83 and as low as 9.21, with a median of 12.23.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. PTR has a P/S ratio of 0.21. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.55.

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

Published in