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Are Investors Undervaluing Summit Financial Group (SMMF) 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.

Of these, value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. 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.

Summit Financial Group is a stock many investors are watching right now. SMMF is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock holds a P/E ratio of 7.57, while its industry has an average P/E of 11.56. Over the past year, SMMF's Forward P/E has been as high as 9.56 and as low as 7.37, with a median of 8.37.

Investors should also recognize that SMMF has a P/B ratio of 1.09. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. SMMF's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 1.74. Over the past year, SMMF's P/B has been as high as 1.25 and as low as 0.92, with a median of 1.09.

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 popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. SMMF has a P/S ratio of 2.33. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 3.24.

Finally, we should also recognize that SMMF has a P/CF ratio of 6.32. This figure highlights a company's operating cash flow and can be used to find firms that are undervalued when considering their impressive cash outlook. SMMF's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 11.58. Within the past 12 months, SMMF's P/CF has been as high as 9.36 and as low as 5.74, with a median of 6.65.

These are just a handful of the figures considered in Summit Financial Group'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 SMMF is an impressive value stock right now.

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