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Should Value Investors Buy Caleres (CAL) Stock?

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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.

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.

In addition to the Zacks Rank, investors looking for stocks with specific traits can utilize our Style Scores system. Of course, value investors will be most interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with "A" grades for Value and high Zacks Ranks are among the best value stocks available at any given moment.

Caleres (CAL - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. CAL is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 7.38, which compares to its industry's average of 20.28. Over the last 12 months, CAL's Forward P/E has been as high as 9.17 and as low as 5.45, with a median of 6.99.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. This is a prefered metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. CAL has a P/S ratio of 0.43. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.91.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that CAL has a P/CF ratio of 5.25. 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 company's current P/CF looks solid when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 16.31. Over the past 52 weeks, CAL's P/CF has been as high as 6.22 and as low as 4.11, with a median of 4.99.

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


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