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Are Investors Undervaluing El Pollo Loco (LOCO) Right Now?

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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 tried-and-true metrics and fundamental analysis to find companies that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

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.

El Pollo Loco (LOCO - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. LOCO 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 15.55 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 23.77. Over the past year, LOCO's Forward P/E has been as high as 16.11 and as low as 9.75, with a median of 12.60.

Finally, our model also underscores that LOCO has a P/CF ratio of 9.45. This metric takes into account a company's operating cash flow and can be used to find stocks that are undervalued based on their solid cash outlook. This company's current P/CF looks solid when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 21.45. Over the past 52 weeks, LOCO's P/CF has been as high as 9.56 and as low as 6.06, with a median of 7.12.

These are just a handful of the figures considered in El Pollo Loco's great Value grade. Still, they help show that the stock is likely being undervalued at the moment. Add this to the strength of its earnings outlook, and we can clearly see that LOCO is an impressive value stock right now.


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