Yahoo Finance Is Provident Financial (PROV) a Great Value Stock Right Now?
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 rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.
On top of the Zacks Rank, investors can also look at our innovative Style Scores system to find stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will want to focus on the "Value" category. Stocks with high Zacks Ranks and "A" grades for Value will be some of the highest-quality value stocks on the market today.
One stock to keep an eye on is Provident Financial (PROV). PROV is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value.
Another valuation metric that we should highlight is PROV's P/B ratio of 0.64. 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. This stock's P/B looks solid versus its industry's average P/B of 0.83. Over the past year, PROV's P/B has been as high as 0.83 and as low as 0.59, with a median of 0.73.
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. PROV has a P/S ratio of 1.48. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.62.
These are only a few of the key metrics included in Provident Financial'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, PROV looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.
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Provident Financial Holdings, Inc. (PROV) : Free Stock Analysis Report
