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Should Value Investors Buy Franklin Financial Network (FSB) 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 use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

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 to watch right now is Franklin Financial Network . FSB is currently holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 8.29, which compares to its industry's average of 13.01. Over the last 12 months, FSB's Forward P/E has been as high as 15.89 and as low as 5.53, with a median of 11.57.

Investors should also recognize that FSB has a P/B ratio of 0.82. 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 attractive against its industry's average P/B of 1.65. Over the past year, FSB's P/B has been as high as 1.40 and as low as 0.54, with a median of 1.08.

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. FSB has a P/S ratio of 1.75. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.87.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in Franklin Financial Network'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, FSB looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.

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