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Are Investors Undervaluing Quanex Building Products (NX) 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, 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.

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 Quanex Building Products (NX - Free Report) . NX is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), as well as an A grade for Value. The stock holds a P/E ratio of 10.14, while its industry has an average P/E of 13.58. Over the last 12 months, NX's Forward P/E has been as high as 13.45 and as low as 9.23, with a median of 11.23.

Value investors also frequently use the P/S ratio. This metric is found by dividing a stock's price with the company's revenue. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. NX has a P/S ratio of 0.73. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.28.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that NX has a P/CF ratio of 7.23. 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. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 12.98. Over the past 52 weeks, NX's P/CF has been as high as 8.57 and as low as 5.57, with a median of 7.16.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in Quanex Building Products's strong Value grade, but they help show that the stock is likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, NX looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.


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