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Should Value Investors Buy Barrett Business Services (BBSI) 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 use tried-and-true metrics and fundamental analysis to find companies that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

On top of the Zacks Rank, investors can also look at our innovative Style Scores system to find stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will want to focus on the "Value" category. Stocks with high Zacks Ranks and "A" grades for Value will be some of the highest-quality value stocks on the market today.

One stock to keep an eye on is Barrett Business Services (BBSI - Free Report) . BBSI is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 16.69 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 24.72. Over the past 52 weeks, BBSI's Forward P/E has been as high as 17.39 and as low as 12.10, with a median of 15.10.

BBSI is also sporting a PEG ratio of 1.11. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. BBSI's industry currently sports an average PEG of 2.67. Within the past year, BBSI's PEG has been as high as 1.24 and as low as 0.86, with a median of 1.08.

Investors should also recognize that BBSI has a P/B ratio of 4.69. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. BBSI's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 13.21. Within the past 52 weeks, BBSI's P/B has been as high as 4.82 and as low as 3.20, with a median of 4.16.

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. BBSI has a P/S ratio of 0.86. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.96.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in Barrett Business Services'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, BBSI looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.


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