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Should Value Investors Buy Tenet Healthcare (THC) Stock?

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Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore strong picks.

Of these, perhaps no stock market trend is more popular than value investing, which is a strategy that has proven to be successful in all sorts of market environments. Value investors rely on traditional forms of analysis on key valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are undervalued, leaving room for profits.

Luckily, Zacks has developed its own Style Scores system in an effort to find stocks with specific traits. Value investors will be interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with both "A" grades in the Value category and high Zacks Ranks are among the strongest value stocks on the market right now.

Tenet Healthcare (THC - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. THC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) and an A for Value.

THC is also sporting a PEG ratio of 0.74. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. THC's PEG compares to its industry's average PEG of 1.05. THC's PEG has been as high as 5.07 and as low as 0.68, with a median of 1.45, all within 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 prefered metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. THC has a P/S ratio of 0.75. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.9.

Finally, investors should note that THC has a P/CF ratio of 4.08. This metric focuses on a firm's operating cash flow and is often used to find stocks that are undervalued based on the strength of their cash outlook. THC's current P/CF looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 7. Within the past 12 months, THC's P/CF has been as high as 7.24 and as low as 2.61, with a median of 4.17.

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


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