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Should Value Investors Buy Internet Initiative Japan (IIJIY) Stock?

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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, 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.

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.

Internet Initiative Japan (IIJIY - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. IIJIY 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 26.32 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 29.53. Over the last 12 months, IIJIY's Forward P/E has been as high as 30.55 and as low as 18.40, with a median of 21.79.

We should also highlight that IIJIY has a P/B ratio of 2.18. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. IIJIY's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 5.35. Within the past 52 weeks, IIJIY's P/B has been as high as 2.32 and as low as 1.17, with a median of 1.48.

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. IIJIY has a P/S ratio of 0.88. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 2.55.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that IIJIY has a P/CF ratio of 7.24. This figure highlights a company's operating cash flow and can be used to find firms that are undervalued when considering their impressive cash outlook. This company's current P/CF looks solid when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 24.33. Over the past 52 weeks, IIJIY's P/CF has been as high as 7.69 and as low as 4.34, with a median of 5.45.

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


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