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Is United Rentals (URI) Stock Undervalued Right Now?

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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.

Looking at the history of these trends, perhaps none is more beloved than value investing. This strategy simply looks to identify companies that are being undervalued by the broader market. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

Zacks has developed the innovative Style Scores system to highlight stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will be interested in stocks with great grades in the "Value" category. When paired with a high Zacks Rank, "A" grades in the Value category are among the strongest value stocks on the market today.

One stock to keep an eye on is United Rentals (URI - Free Report) . URI is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 9.51 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 12.44. Over the past 52 weeks, URI's Forward P/E has been as high as 11.83 and as low as 7.57, with a median of 10.

Investors should also note that URI holds a PEG ratio of 0.59. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. URI's industry currently sports an average PEG of 1. Within the past year, URI's PEG has been as high as 0.72 and as low as 0.45, with a median of 0.59.

Finally, our model also underscores that URI has a P/CF ratio of 5.79. 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 15.89. Within the past 12 months, URI's P/CF has been as high as 7.72 and as low as 4.67, with a median of 6.18.

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


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