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Are Investors Undervaluing Popular (BPOP) 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.

Looking at the history of these trends, perhaps none is more beloved than value investing. This strategy simply looks to identify companies that are being undervalued by the broader market. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

Luckily, Zacks has developed its own Style Scores system in an effort to find stocks with specific traits. Value investors will be interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with both "A" grades in the Value category and high Zacks Ranks are among the strongest value stocks on the market right now.

One company value investors might notice is Popular (BPOP - Free Report) . BPOP 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 8.93 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 11.26. Over the past year, BPOP's Forward P/E has been as high as 11.73 and as low as 7.63, with a median of 9.63.

We should also highlight that BPOP has a P/B ratio of 1.02. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. BPOP's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 1.61. BPOP's P/B has been as high as 1.11 and as low as 0.78, with a median of 0.96, over the past year.

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. BPOP has a P/S ratio of 2.03. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 2.87.

Finally, investors should note that BPOP has a P/CF ratio of 12.63. 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. BPOP's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 13. Over the past year, BPOP's P/CF has been as high as 34.34 and as low as 10.71, with a median of 16.09.

Value investors will likely look at more than just these metrics, but the above data helps show that Popular is likely undervalued currently. And when considering the strength of its earnings outlook, BPOP sticks out at as one of the market's strongest value stocks.


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