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Should Value Investors Buy Allstate (ALL) Stock?

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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.

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.

One company value investors might notice is Allstate (ALL - Free Report) . ALL is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as a Value grade of A. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 10.87, which compares to its industry's average of 28.91. Over the past 52 weeks, ALL's Forward P/E has been as high as 12.72 and as low as -83.58, with a median of 11.20.

We also note that ALL holds a PEG ratio of 1.55. 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. ALL's PEG compares to its industry's average PEG of 2.90. Over the last 12 months, ALL's PEG has been as high as 1.82 and as low as -11.94, with a median of 1.53.

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. ALL has a P/S ratio of 0.83. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.19.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in Allstate'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, ALL looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.


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