Are Investors Undervaluing Northwest Natural (NWN) Right Now?

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, 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 use a variety of methods, including tried-and-true valuation metrics, to find these stocks.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 Northwest Natural (NWN). NWN is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 13.94, which compares to its industry's average of 21.69. Over the past 52 weeks, NWN's Forward P/E has been as high as 17.00 and as low as 13.15, with a median of 13.99. Another notable valuation metric for NWN is its P/B ratio of 1.17. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. NWN's current P/B looks attractive when compared to its industry's average P/B of 1.45. Over the past 12 months, NWN's P/B has been as high as 1.25 and as low as 1.09, with a median of 1.15.Value investors also frequently use the P/S ratio. This metric is found by dividing a stock's price with the company's revenue. This is a preferred metric because revenue can't really be manipulated, so sales are often a truer performance indicator. NWN has a P/S ratio of 1.53. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.82.Finally, investors will want to recognize that NWN has a P/CF ratio of 6.05. 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. NWN's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 10.77. Within the past 12 months, NWN's P/CF has been as high as 7.39 and as low as 5.62, with a median of 6.55.These figures are just a handful of the metrics value investors tend to look at, but they help show that Northwest Natural is likely being undervalued right now. Considering this, as well as the strength of its earnings outlook, NWN feels like a great value stock at the moment.Radical New Technology Could Hand Investors Huge GainsQuantum Computing is the next technological revolution, and it could be even more advanced than AI.While some believed the technology was years away, it is already present and moving fast. Large hyperscalers, such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle, and even Meta and Tesla, are scrambling to integrate quantum computing into their infrastructure.Senior Stock Strategist Kevin Cook reveals 7 carefully selected stocks poised to dominate the quantum computing landscape in his report, Beyond AI: The Quantum Leap in Computing Power.Kevin was among the early experts who recognized NVIDIA's enormous potential back in 2016. Now, he has keyed in on what could be "the next big thing" in quantum computing supremacy. Today, you have a rare chance to position your portfolio at the forefront of this opportunity.See Top Quantum Stocks Now >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Northwest Natural Gas Company (NWN): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks