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Is Santander Consumer (SC) a Great Value Stock Right Now?

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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.

Considering these trends, value investing is clearly one of the most preferred ways to find strong stocks in any type of market. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

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 Santander Consumer . SC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) and an A for Value. The stock has a Forward P/E ratio of 7. This compares to its industry's average Forward P/E of 7.44. Over the past 52 weeks, SC's Forward P/E has been as high as 21.35 and as low as 6.66, with a median of 9.85.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. This is a popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. SC has a P/S ratio of 1.33. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.64.

Finally, our model also underscores that SC has a P/CF ratio of 2.95. This metric focuses on a firm's operating cash flow and is often used to find stocks that are undervalued based on the strength of their cash outlook. SC's current P/CF looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 4.93. SC's P/CF has been as high as 3.14 and as low as 2.03, with a median of 2.37, all within the past year.

These are just a handful of the figures considered in Santander Consumer'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 SC is an impressive value stock right now.

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