5 Low Price-to-Cash Flow Stocks To Refine Your Portfolio

Investors always try to hit the jackpot while picking stocks. But striking the right chord each time is not easy unless you are blessed with Midas touch.

When it comes to the investment market, experts consider value style as one of the most effective approaches. In value investing, investors pick stocks that are cheap but fundamentally sound. So, the chance of outperformance is high when the market moves higher.

There are different valuation metrics to determine a stock’s inherent strength but a random selection of ratios cannot serve your purpose if you want a realistic assessment of a company’s financial position. For this, we recommend Price to Cash Flow (or P/CF) as one of the key metrics. This metric evaluates the market price of a stock relative to the amount of cash flow that the company is generating on a per share basis – the lower the number, the better.

Price to Cash Flow Reveals Financial Health

Questions may arise as to why we are considering the Price to Cash Flow valuation metric, when the most widely used metric is Price/Earnings (or P/E). Well, what makes P/CF stand out is that operating cash flow adds back non-cash charges such as depreciation and amortization to net income, truly reflecting the financial health of a company.

Analysts caution that a company’s earnings are subject to accounting estimates and management manipulation. However, cash flow is reliable. It is net cash flow that reveals how much money a company is actually generating and how effectively management is putting the same to use.

A positive cash flow indicates an increase in the company’s liquid assets. This gives the company the means to settle debt, shell out for its expenses, reinvest in its business, endure downturns and finally pay back its shareholders. Then again, a negative cash flow implies a decline in the company’s liquidity, which in turn lowers its flexibility to support these moves.

What’s the Best Strategy?

However, an investment decision solely based on the P/CF metric may not fetch the desired results. To identify stocks that are trading at a discount, you should expand your search criteria and consider price-to-book, price-to-earnings and price-to-sales ratios. Adding a favorable Zacks Rank and a Value Score of A or B to your search criteria should give you even better results as they eliminate the chance of falling into a value trap.

Here are the parameters for selecting true value stocks:

P/CF less than or equal to X-Industry Median.

Price greater than or equal to 5: The stocks must all be trading at a minimum of $5 or higher.

Average 20-Day Volume greater than 100,000: A substantial trading volume ensures that the stock is easily tradable.

P/E using (F1) less than or equal to X-Industry Median: This parameter shortlists stocks that are trading at a discount or are equal to its peers.

P/B less than or equal to X-Industry Median: A lower P/B compared with the industry average implies that there is enough room for the stock to gain.

P/S less than or equal to X-Industry Median: The P/S ratio determines how a stock price compares to the company’s sales — the lower the ratio the more attractive the stock is.

PEG less than 1: The ratio is used to determine a stock's value by taking the company's earnings growth into account. PEG ratio portrays a more complete picture than the P/E ratio. A value of less than 1 indicates that the stock is undervalued and that investors need to pay less for a stock that has robust earnings growth prospect.

Zacks Rank less than or equal to 2: Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) stocks are known to outperform irrespective of the market environment.

Value Score of less than or equal to B: Our research shows that stocks with a Style Score of A or B when combined with Zacks Rank #1 or 2 offer the best upside potential.

Here are five of the 12 stocks that qualified the screening:

Legg Mason, Inc. (NYSE:LM) , an asset management holding company, has an expected EPS growth rate of 14.4% for 3-5 years. This Zacks Rank #2 company delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 9.9% for the trailing four quarters. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

BrightView Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BV) provides commercial landscaping services in the United States. It has a Zacks Rank #2 and an expected EPS growth rate of 19% for 3-5 years. The delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 3.8% for the trailing four quarters.

General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) designs, builds, and sells cars, trucks, and automobile parts worldwide. It has a Zacks Rank #2 and an expected EPS growth rate of 10.9% for 3-5 years. The company delivered positive earnings surprises in the trailing four quarters at an average of 27.7%.

SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE:SNX) , which provides business process services, has an expected EPS growth rate of 10.4% for 3-5 years. This Zacks Rank #2 company delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 9.1% for the trailing four quarters.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) designs, manufactures, markets and services a range of Ford cars, trucks, sport utility vehicles and electrified vehicles. It has a Zacks Rank #2 and an expected EPS growth rate of 7.3% for 3-5 years. The company delivered average four-quarter positive earnings surprises of 18.2%.

Get the rest of the stocks on the list and start putting this and other ideas to the test. It can all be done with the Research Wizard stock picking and backtesting software.

The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out.

Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today.

Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.

Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks’ portfolios and strategies are available at: https://www.zacks.com/performance.

BrightView Holdings, Inc. (BV): Free Stock Analysis Report

General Motors Company (GM): Free Stock Analysis Report

Ford Motor Company (F): Free Stock Analysis Report

SYNNEX Corporation (SNX): Free Stock Analysis Report

Legg Mason, Inc. (LM): Free Stock Analysis Report

Original post

Zacks Investment Research