Yahoo Finance At US$226, Is UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF) Worth Looking At Closely?
While UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF) might not be the most widely known stock at the moment, it received a lot of attention from a substantial price movement on the NYSE over the last few months, increasing to US$257 at one point, and dropping to the lows of US$213. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether UniFirst's current trading price of US$226 reflective of the actual value of the mid-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Let’s take a look at UniFirst’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.
Check out our latest analysis for UniFirst
Is UniFirst still cheap?
The share price seems sensible at the moment according to my price multiple model, where I compare the company's price-to-earnings ratio to the industry average. I’ve used the price-to-earnings ratio in this instance because there’s not enough visibility to forecast its cash flows. The stock’s ratio of 33.47x is currently trading slightly below its industry peers’ ratio of 35.08x, which means if you buy UniFirst today, you’d be paying a decent price for it. And if you believe UniFirst should be trading in this range, then there isn’t much room for the share price to grow beyond the levels of other industry peers over the long-term. Is there another opportunity to buy low in the future? Since UniFirst’s share price is quite volatile, we could potentially see it sink lower (or rise higher) in the future, giving us another chance to buy. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for how much the stock moves relative to the rest of the market.
What does the future of UniFirst look like?
Investors looking for growth in their portfolio may want to consider the prospects of a company before buying its shares. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so let’s also take a look at the company's future expectations. With profit expected to grow by a double-digit 16% in the upcoming year, the short-term outlook is positive for UniFirst. 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? UNF’s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around industry price multiples. However, there are also other important factors which we haven’t considered today, such as the financial strength of the company. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at UNF? Will you have enough conviction to buy should the price fluctuate below the industry PE ratio?
Are you a potential investor? If you’ve been keeping an eye on UNF, now may not be the most optimal time to buy, given it is trading around industry price multiples. However, the optimistic forecast is encouraging for UNF, which means it’s worth further examining other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop.
Diving deeper into the forecasts for UniFirst mentioned earlier will help you understand how analysts view the stock going forward. So feel free to check out our free graph representing analyst forecasts.
If you are no longer interested in UniFirst, you can use our free platform to see our list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.
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. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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