Are Investors Undervaluing United Natural Foods (UNFI) Right Now?

This story originally appeared on Zacks

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 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.

One stock to keep an eye on is United Natural Foods (UNFI). UNFI is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 11.69, which compares to its industry’s average of 18.23. Over the last 12 months, UNFI’s Forward P/E has been as high as 15.89 and as low as 4.91, with a median of 10.33.

Investors should also recognize that UNFI has a P/B ratio of 1.84. The P/B ratio pits a stock’s market value against 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 2.18. Over the past 12 months, UNFI’s P/B has been as high as 2.03 and as low as 0.77, with a median of 1.54.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that UNFI has a P/CF ratio of 6.11. 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. UNFI’s current P/CF looks attractive when compared to its industry’s average P/CF of 18.56. UNFI’s P/CF has been as high as 7.14 and as low as 1.07, with a median of 4.89, all within the past year.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in United Natural Foods’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, UNFI looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.

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