Yahoo Finance At AU$8.05, Is It Time To Put ALS Limited (ASX:ALQ) On Your Watch List?
ALS Limited (ASX:ALQ), which is in the professional services business, and is based in Australia, led the ASX gainers with a relatively large price hike in the past couple of weeks. As a mid-cap stock with high coverage by analysts, you could assume any recent changes in the company’s outlook is already priced into the stock. But what if there is still an opportunity to buy? Let’s take a look at ALS’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if the opportunity still exists.
See our latest analysis for ALS
Is ALS still cheap?
ALS appears to be overvalued by 40.68% at the moment, based on my discounted cash flow valuation. The stock is currently priced at AU$8.05 on the market compared to my intrinsic value of A$5.72. This means that the buying opportunity has probably disappeared for now. Furthermore, ALS’s share price also seems relatively stable compared to the rest of the market, as indicated by its low beta. If you believe the share price should eventually reach its true value, a low beta could suggest it is unlikely to rapidly do so anytime soon, and once it’s there, it may be hard to fall back down into an attractive buying range.
What does the future of ALS look like?
Future outlook is an important aspect when you’re looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Although value investors would argue that it’s the intrinsic value relative to the price that matter the most, a more compelling investment thesis would be high growth potential at a cheap price. With profit expected to grow by 37% over the next couple of years, the future seems bright for ALS. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation.
What this means for you:
Are you a shareholder? ALQ’s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading above its fair value. However, this brings up another question – is now the right time to sell? If you believe ALQ should trade below its current price, selling high and buying it back up again when its price falls towards its real value can be profitable. But before you make this decision, take a look at whether its fundamentals have changed.
Are you a potential investor? If you’ve been keeping tabs on ALQ for some time, now may not be the best time to enter into the stock. The price has surpassed its true value, which means there’s no upside from mispricing. However, the positive outlook is encouraging for ALQ, which means it’s worth diving deeper into other factors in order to take advantage of the next price drop.
Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters – the fundamentals – before you make a decision on ALS. You can find everything you need to know about ALS in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in ALS, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
