Is Heartland Financial USA (HTLF) 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.
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 company value investors might notice is Heartland Financial USA (HTLF). HTLF is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 6.66 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 8.59. Over the past 52 weeks, HTLF's Forward P/E has been as high as 9.76 and as low as 5.51, with a median of 7.23.
Another valuation metric that we should highlight is HTLF's P/B ratio of 0.72. 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 1.54. HTLF's P/B has been as high as 1.40 and as low as 0.66, with a median of 0.99, over the past year.
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. HTLF has a P/S ratio of 1.3. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.81.
Finally, investors will want to recognize that HTLF has a P/CF ratio of 4.54. 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. HTLF's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 8.69. Over the past year, HTLF's P/CF has been as high as 7.35 and as low as 3.90, with a median of 5.51.
These are just a handful of the figures considered in Heartland Financial USA's great Value grade. Still, they help show that the stock is likely being undervalued at the moment. Add this to the strength of its earnings outlook, and we can clearly see that HTLF is an impressive value stock right now.
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Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (HTLF) : Free Stock Analysis Report
