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Should Value Investors Buy Greif (GEF) 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.

One company value investors might notice is Greif (GEF - Free Report) . GEF is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock holds a P/E ratio of 13.07, while its industry has an average P/E of 14.42. Over the past 52 weeks, GEF's Forward P/E has been as high as 19.12 and as low as 10.67, with a median of 13.12.

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. GEF has a P/S ratio of 0.57. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.97.

Finally, we should also recognize that GEF has a P/CF ratio of 7.29. 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 26.48. Within the past 12 months, GEF's P/CF has been as high as 7.47 and as low as 5.95, with a median of 6.45.

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


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