Yahoo Finance Should Value Investors Buy Stifel Financial (SF) Stock?
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.
In addition to the Zacks Rank, investors looking for stocks with specific traits can utilize our Style Scores system. Of course, value investors will be most interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with "A" grades for Value and high Zacks Ranks are among the best value stocks available at any given moment.
One stock to keep an eye on is Stifel Financial (SF). SF is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 10.30 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 12.56. Over the last 12 months, SF's Forward P/E has been as high as 11.12 and as low as 9.95, with a median of 10.47.
Another valuation metric that we should highlight is SF's P/B ratio of 1.72. 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 3.11. Over the past year, SF's P/B has been as high as 1.73 and as low as 1.27, with a median of 1.44.
Value investors also love the P/S ratio, which is calculated by simply dividing a stock's price with the company's 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. SF has a P/S ratio of 1.78. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.98.
Finally, our model also underscores that SF has a P/CF ratio of 11.33. 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 stock's P/CF looks attractive against its industry's average P/CF of 23.80. SF's P/CF has been as high as 11.46 and as low as 7.43, with a median of 8.88, all within the past year.
These are only a few of the key metrics included in Stifel 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, SF looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.
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Stifel Financial Corporation (SF) : Free Stock Analysis Report
