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Should Value Investors Buy South Plains Financial (SPFI) Stock?

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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 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 stock to keep an eye on is South Plains Financial (SPFI - Free Report) . SPFI is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value.

We should also highlight that SPFI has a P/B ratio of 1.31. 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 stock's P/B looks solid versus its industry's average P/B of 1.88. SPFI's P/B has been as high as 1.31 and as low as 1.02, with a median of 1.18, over the past year.

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. SPFI has a P/S ratio of 2.02. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 3.03.

Finally, investors should note that SPFI has a P/CF ratio of 6.89. 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 12.24. Within the past 12 months, SPFI's P/CF has been as high as 7.84 and as low as 5.68, with a median of 6.75.

Value investors will likely look at more than just these metrics, but the above data helps show that South Plains Financial is likely undervalued currently. And when considering the strength of its earnings outlook, SPFI sticks out at as one of the market's strongest value stocks.


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