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Should Value Investors Buy Summit Materials (SUM) Stock?

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Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore 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.

On top of the Zacks Rank, investors can also look at our innovative Style Scores system to find stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will want to focus on the "Value" category. Stocks with high Zacks Ranks and "A" grades for Value will be some of the highest-quality value stocks on the market today.

One company to watch right now is Summit Materials (SUM - Free Report) . SUM 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 18.60 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 24.75. Over the past 52 weeks, SUM's Forward P/E has been as high as 55.15 and as low as 10.03, with a median of 25.83.

Another notable valuation metric for SUM is its P/B ratio of 1.31. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This company's current P/B looks solid when compared to its industry's average P/B of 2.59. SUM's P/B has been as high as 2.02 and as low as 0.67, with a median of 1.36, over the past year.

Finally, investors should note that SUM has a P/CF ratio of 5.86. 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 stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 22.15. Within the past 12 months, SUM's P/CF has been as high as 12.69 and as low as 3.43, with a median of 6.13.

These are just a handful of the figures considered in Summit Materials's great Value grade. Still, they help show that the stock is likely being undervalued at the moment. Add this to the strength of its earnings outlook, and we can clearly see that SUM is an impressive value stock right now.


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