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Are Investors Undervaluing Acadia Healthcare (ACHC) Right Now?

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The proven Zacks Rank system focuses on earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find winning stocks. Nevertheless, we know that our readers all have their own perspectives, so we are always looking at the latest trends in value, growth, and momentum to find strong picks.

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 Acadia Healthcare (ACHC - Free Report) . ACHC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 11.38 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 13.11. Over the last 12 months, ACHC's Forward P/E has been as high as 16.32 and as low as 5.10, with a median of 13.11.

Investors will also notice that ACHC has a PEG ratio of 1.59. 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. ACHC's industry has an average PEG of 1.70 right now. ACHC's PEG has been as high as 2.14 and as low as 0.48, with a median of 1.31, all within the past year.

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


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