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Should Value Investors Buy Hewlett Packard (HPE) 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.

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.

Hewlett Packard (HPE - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. HPE 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 10.18 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 18.12. Over the past 52 weeks, HPE's Forward P/E has been as high as 10.80 and as low as 7.16, with a median of 8.39.

HPE is also sporting a PEG ratio of 2.33. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. HPE's industry currently sports an average PEG of 4.02. Over the last 12 months, HPE's PEG has been as high as 2.78 and as low as 1.68, with a median of 2.24.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. HPE has a P/S ratio of 0.95. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 2.53.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that HPE has a P/CF ratio of 6.25. This metric focuses on a firm's operating cash flow and is often used to find stocks that are undervalued based on the strength of their cash outlook. This stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 10.94. Over the past 52 weeks, HPE's P/CF has been as high as 6.55 and as low as 4.24, with a median of 4.92.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in Hewlett Packard'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, HPE looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.


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