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Are Investors Undervaluing Cars.com (CARS) Right Now?

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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.

Looking at the history of these trends, perhaps none is more beloved than value investing. This strategy simply looks to identify companies that are being undervalued by the broader market. Value investors use a variety of methods, including tried-and-true valuation metrics, to find these stocks.

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.

Cars.com (CARS - Free Report) is a stock many investors are watching right now. CARS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as an A grade for Value.

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. CARS has a P/S ratio of 1.14. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.27.

Finally, investors should note that CARS has a P/CF ratio of 5.59. 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. CARS's current P/CF looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/CF of 16.05. Within the past 12 months, CARS's P/CF has been as high as 10.36 and as low as 5.03, with a median of 7.31.

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


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