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Should Value Investors Buy MetLife (MET) Stock?

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Here at Zacks, we focus on our proven ranking system, which places an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, to find winning stocks. But we also understand that investors develop their own strategies, so we are constantly looking at the latest trends in value, growth, and momentum to find strong companies for our readers.

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 value investors might notice is MetLife (MET - Free Report) . MET is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as an A grade for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 8.16 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 10.55. Over the past year, MET's Forward P/E has been as high as 10.25 and as low as 5.89, with a median of 8.02.

Investors should also recognize that MET has a P/B ratio of 0.77. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus 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 1.58. Within the past 52 weeks, MET's P/B has been as high as 0.89 and as low as 0.43, with a median of 0.62.

Value investors also frequently use the P/S ratio. This metric is found by dividing a stock's price with the company's revenue. This is a prefered metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. MET has a P/S ratio of 0.72. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.05.

These figures are just a handful of the metrics value investors tend to look at, but they help show that MetLife is likely being undervalued right now. Considering this, as well as the strength of its earnings outlook, MET feels like a great value stock at the moment.


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