Are Investors Undervaluing Euroseas (ESEA) Right Now?

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 tried-and-true metrics and fundamental analysis to find companies that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

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 company value investors might notice is Euroseas (ESEA). ESEA is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 1.45 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 4.08. Over the past 52 weeks, ESEA's Forward P/E has been as high as 4.57 and as low as 1.23, with a median of 1.99.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by 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. ESEA has a P/S ratio of 1.13. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.19.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that ESEA has a P/CF ratio of 1.82. 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. ESEA's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 3.43. Over the past year, ESEA's P/CF has been as high as 14.90 and as low as 1.51, with a median of 4.20.

Another great Transportation - Shipping stock you could consider is Safe Bulkers (SB), which is a # 1 (Strong Buy) stock with a Value Score of A.

Safe Bulkers sports a P/B ratio of 0.66 as well; this compares to its industry's price-to-book ratio of 1.28. In the past 52 weeks, SB's P/B has been as high as 1.12, as low as 0.55, with a median of 0.73.

These figures are just a handful of the metrics value investors tend to look at, but they help show that Euroseas and Safe Bulkers are likely being undervalued right now. Considering this, as well as the strength of its earnings outlook, ESEA and SB feels like a great value stock at the moment.

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