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Are Investors Undervaluing Century Communities (CCS) 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 stock to keep an eye on is Century Communities (CCS - Free Report) . CCS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as an A grade for Value. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 7.85, which compares to its industry's average of 11.27. CCS's Forward P/E has been as high as 8.90 and as low as 5.95, with a median of 6.77, all within the past year.

Investors should also recognize that CCS has a P/B ratio of 1.07. 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. This stock's P/B looks solid versus its industry's average P/B of 1.38. Within the past 52 weeks, CCS's P/B has been as high as 1.15 and as low as 0.81, with a median of 0.93.

Value investors also love the P/S ratio, which is calculated by simply dividing a stock's price with the company's sales. This is a popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. CCS has a P/S ratio of 0.45. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.74.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that CCS has a P/CF ratio of 9.38. 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. CCS's current P/CF looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 9.69. Over the past year, CCS's P/CF has been as high as 10.70 and as low as 6.42, with a median of 8.67.

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


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