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Should Value Investors Buy Unifirst (UNF) Stock?

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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.

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 stock to keep an eye on is Unifirst (UNF - Free Report) . UNF is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as an A grade for Value.

Another valuation metric that we should highlight is UNF's P/B ratio of 1.84. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This stock's P/B looks attractive against its industry's average P/B of 4.23. Over the past year, UNF's P/B has been as high as 2.01 and as low as 1.36, with a median of 1.63.

Finally, investors will want to recognize that UNF has a P/CF ratio of 13.64. This data point considers a firm's operating cash flow and is frequently used to find companies that are undervalued when considering their solid cash outlook. UNF's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 24.59. UNF's P/CF has been as high as 14.90 and as low as 10.67, with a median of 12.57, all within the past year.

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


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