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Should Value Investors Buy First American Financial (FAF) Stock?

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Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore strong picks.

Of these, perhaps no stock market trend is more popular than value investing, which is a strategy that has proven to be successful in all sorts of market environments. 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 First American Financial (FAF - Free Report) . FAF is currently holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 11.74 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 26.46. Over the past 52 weeks, FAF's Forward P/E has been as high as 12.27 and as low as 9.42, with a median of 11.49.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that FAF has a P/CF ratio of 9.56. 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. FAF's current P/CF looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 15.12. Within the past 12 months, FAF's P/CF has been as high as 9.99 and as low as 6.39, with a median of 9.27.

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


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