Based on key financial metrics such as the price-to-sales ratio, shareholder yield and the price-earnings ratio, the following 5 stocks made the list for top value stocks in the Professional Services industry. Those looking for value stocks to add to their portfolio may want to use this list as a starting point for further investment research.

Why Focus on Undervalued Professional Services Stocks?

Value investors seek to buy stocks at a discount to their intrinsic value. Long-term returns show that such strategies are advantageous. Value stocks, as a group, tend to outperform growth stocks over extended periods of time. Typically, value investors perform financial analysis of numerous metrics, don’t follow the herd and are long-term investors.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade is derived from a stock’s Value Score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

What Goes Into AAII’s Value Grade?

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data as well as the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movement. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors with that task.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A–F grades for more than just value. It is possible for a stock to appear cheap based on one valuation metric but appear expensive on another. It is also possible for one valuation ratio to be associated with outperforming stocks during certain periods of time but not others. Some stocks may even have null values for certain metrics like the price-earnings ratio or the price-to-book ratio but not others. An example of this would be a company with losses instead of profits or a negative book value because of heavy borrowing. Negative earnings or book value result in non-meaningful ratios that are left blank or null.

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5 Undervalued Professional Services Stocks

Of course, there are countless value stocks that are worth mentioning, but this is a concise list of the top 5 undervalued stocks in the Professional Services industry for Friday, October 18, 2024. Let’s take a closer look at their individual scores to see how they measure up against each other and the Professional Services industry median.

The Value Grade is assigned based on how each stock’s composite valuation compares to all other stocks.

The process for assigning grades starts with each variable for a given stock. The percentile rankings for all valid ratios that a stock has are calculated. So, for instance, a stock could have a price-to-book ranking in the 43rd percentile, a price-earnings ranking in the 67th percentile, a price-to-sales ranking in the 23rd percentile, etc. Then, those rankings are averaged for each stock. (A minimum of two valid variables are required, though all six will be used if available.)

Once the average of the individual variables is calculated, that average is ranked against all stocks. Put another way, each stock’s composite valuation is compared to all other stocks. These ranks are then sorted into quintiles from the cheapest 20% (a grade of A) to the most expensive 20% (a grade of F).

As always, we recommend that you conduct proper due diligence and research before investing in any security. We also suggest that investors utilize numerous grades, not just value, when it comes to deciding whether a company is a good fit for their allocation needs.

BGSF, Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

BGSF, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides consulting, managed services, and professional workforce solutions in the United States. It operates in two segments, Property Management and Professional. The Property Management segment offers office and maintenance field talent to various apartment communities and commercial buildings. The Professional segment provides skilled IT professionals in SAP, Workday, Peoplesoft, Hyperion, Oracle, One Stream, cyber, project management, management services, and other IT workforce solutions. This segment also offers finance, accounting, legal, human resource, and related support personnel. It serves its products to fortune 500 companies, and medium and small companies, as well as consulting companies. The company was formerly known as BG Staffing, Inc. and changed its name to BGSF, Inc. in February 2021. BGSF, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Plano, Texas.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

BGSF, Inc. has a Value Score of 65, which is considered to be undervalued.

When you look at BGSF, Inc.’s price-to-sales ratio at 0.32 compared to the industry median at 1.37, this company has a lower price relative to revenue compared to its peers. This could make BGSF, Inc.’s stock more attractive for value investors.

BGSF, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 45.70 compared to the industry median at 30.30. This means it has a higher share price relative to earnings compared to its peers. This could make BGSF, Inc. less attractive for value investors.

Now, let’s assess BGSF, Inc.’s EV/EBITDA ratio, also known as enterprise multiple. At 9.1, when compared to the industry median of 13.9, the company may be considered undervalued in relation to its peers. Value investors could use the enterprise multiple to identify stocks that are considered overvalued or undervalued relative to their industry.

Shareholder yield is the sum of a stock’s dividend yield (paid over previous 12 months minus special dividends) and the percentage of net share buybacks over the previous 12 months. BGSF, Inc.’s shareholder yield is lower than its industry median ratio of 0.40%. Value investors may look for an attractive shareholder yield because it can be a powerful tool for identifying if the company has a good management team.

As one of the most common value metrics, the price-to-book ratio evaluates a company’s current market price relative to its book value. BGSF, Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is lower than its industry median ratio of 3.15. This could make BGSF, Inc. more attractive to investors looking for a new addition to their portfolio.

Lastly, let’s take a look at BGSF, Inc.’s price-to-free-cash-flow ratio (P/FCF), which can indicate a company’s market value relative to its operating cash flow. BGSF, Inc.’s price-to-free-cash-flow ratio is lower than its industry median ratio of 22.55. This could make BGSF, Inc. more attractive because the lower P/FCF ratio indicates that BGSF, Inc. is undervalued. The P/FCF ratio metric can also be viewed over a long-term time frame to see if the company's cash flow to share price value is generally improving or worsening.

Concentrix Corporation’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Concentrix Corporation engages in the provision of technology-infused customer experience (CX) solutions worldwide. The company provides CX process optimization, technology innovation, front- and back-office automation, analytics, and business transformation services, across various channels of communication, such as voice, chat, email, social media, asynchronous messaging, and custom applications. It also offers customer lifecycle management; customer experience/user experience strategy and design; analytics and actionable insights; digital transformation services that design and engineer CX solutions to enable efficient customer self-service and build customer loyalty; customer engagement solutions and services that address the entirety of the customer lifecycle; AI technology that can intelligently act on customer intent to improve customer experience with non-human engagement; voice of the customer and analytics solutions to gather and analyze customer feedback to foster loyalty to, and growth with, clients; analytics and consulting solutions that synthesize data and provide professional insight to improve clients’ customer experience strategies; vertical business process outsourcing (BPO) services; and back office BPO services that support clients in non-customer facing areas. The company’s clients include technology and consumer electronics, retail, travel and e-commerce, communications and media, banking, financial services and insurance, healthcare, and others, as well as global IPOs, social brands, and banks. Concentrix Corporation was founded in 2004 and is based in Newark, California.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

Concentrix Corporation has a Value Score of 71, which is considered to be undervalued.

Concentrix Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 16.3 compared to the industry median at 30.3. This means that it has a lower price relative to its earnings compared to its peers. This makes Concentrix Corporation more attractive for value investors.

Concentrix Corporation’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Concentrix Corporation less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 3.15.

You can read more about Concentrix Corporation’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.

DLH Holdings Corp.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

DLH Holdings Corp. provides technology-enabled business process outsourcing, program management solutions, and public health research and analytics services in the United States. It offers digital transformation and cyber security solutions, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud enablement, cybersecurity ecosystem, big data analytics, and modeling and simulation to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Defense Health Agency, Tele-medicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, and US Navy Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC). The company also provides science research and development services and solutions, such as data analytics, testing and evaluation, clinical trials research services, and epidemiology studies to support multiple operating divisions, including NIH and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Military Health System. In addition, it offers system engineering and integration solutions in the areas of pharmaceutical delivery logistics, fire protection engineering, biomedical equipment, and technology engineering on behalf of the Department of Veterans Affairs, NIWC, Health and Human Services, and other federal customers. The company also provides business process management services under the trademarks, e-PRAT and SPOT-m, as well as the registered trademark, Infinibyte for cloud-based solutions. The company was formerly known as TeamStaff, Inc. and changed its name to DLH Holdings Corp. in June 2012. DLH Holdings Corp. was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

DLH Holdings Corp. has a Value Score of 64, which is considered to be undervalued.

DLH Holdings Corp.’s price-earnings ratio is 51.0 compared to the industry median at 30.3. This means that it has a higher price relative to its earnings compared to its peers. This makes DLH Holdings Corp. less attractive for value investors.

DLH Holdings Corp.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make DLH Holdings Corp. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 3.15.

You can read more about DLH Holdings Corp.’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.

Steel Connect, Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Steel Connect, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides supply chain services in the United States, Mainland China, Netherlands, and internationally. It offers product configuration and packaging, kitting, and assembly of components and parts into finished goods; and value-added processes, such as product testing, radio frequency identification tagging, product or service activation, language settings, personalization and engraving, multi-channel packaging, and packaging design services. The company provides fulfillment services comprising order management, pick, pack and ship, retail compliance, and demand planning services; and reverse logistics services that simplifies the returns process for retailers and manufacturers, as well as operates a cloud-based e-commerce platform. In addition, it offers warehousing and inventory management services; and software licenses, maintenance, and support services. Further, the company offers its supply chain services to customers in the consumer electronics, communications, computing, medical devices, software, and retail markets. The company was formerly known as ModusLink Global Solutions, Inc. and changed its name to Steel Connect, Inc. in February 2018. Steel Connect, Inc. was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

Steel Connect, Inc. has a Value Score of 99, which is considered to be undervalued.

Steel Connect, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 3.2 compared to the industry median at 30.3. This means that it has a lower price relative to its earnings compared to its peers. This makes Steel Connect, Inc. more attractive for value investors.

Steel Connect, Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Steel Connect, Inc. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 3.15.

You can read more about Steel Connect, Inc.’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.

TaskUs, Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

TaskUs, Inc. provides digital outsourcing services for companies in Philippines, the United States, India, and internationally. It offers digital customer experience that consists of omni-channel customer care services primarily delivered through non-voice digital channels; and other solutions, including experience and customer care services for new product or market launches, and customer acquisition solutions. The company also provides trust and safety solutions, such as review and disposition of user and advertiser generated visual, text, and audio content, which include removal or labeling of policy violating, and offensive or misleading content, as well as risk management, compliance, identity management, and fraud services; and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that consist of data labeling, annotation, context relevance, and transcription services for training and tuning machine learning algorithms that enables to develop AI systems. It serves clients in various industry segments comprising e-commerce, FinTech, food delivery and ride sharing, gaming, technology, HealthTech, social media, and streaming media. The company was formerly known as TU TopCo, Inc. and changed its name to TaskUs, Inc. in December 2020. TaskUs, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in New Braunfels, Texas.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.

TaskUs, Inc. has a Value Score of 75, which is considered to be undervalued.

TaskUs, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 21.9 compared to the industry median at 30.3. This means that it has a lower price relative to its earnings compared to its peers. This makes TaskUs, Inc. more attractive for value investors.

TaskUs, Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make TaskUs, Inc. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 3.15.

You can read more about TaskUs, Inc.’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.

Other Professional Services Stock Grades

Value is just one of the five Stock Grades included in our A+ Investor service. AAII members can see the top-graded stocks—those with grades of A or B for value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality—on the A+ Stock Grades Screener.

Also, if you want full access to all of AAII’s premium services, you can subscribe to one convenient bundled plan called AAII Platinum where you can try out A+ Investor, AAII Dividend Investing, the Stock Superstars Report, Growth Investing and VMQ Stocks. With the other premium services, you can dive deep into additional metrics, portfolios, commentary and information about Professional Services stocks as well as other industrys.

Choosing Which of the 5 Best Professional Services Stocks Is Right for You

Choosing which value stocks to invest in will ultimately depend on your individual goals and allocation; however, comparing similar value stocks in the same industry can help you analyze which might be better investments for you in the long run. So, let’s take a look at the Value Grade for all of our stocks.

• BGSF, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of B.
• Concentrix Corporation stock has a Value Grade of B.
• DLH Holdings Corp. stock has a Value Grade of B.
• Steel Connect, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of A.
• TaskUs, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of B.

Now that you have a bit more background about each of the 5 undervalued stocks in the Professional Services industry as well as their overall grades, it’s time for you to conduct additional research to see if these could fit your portfolio needs based on your goals and risk tolerance. AAII can help you figure out both and identify which investments align with what works best for you.

We do so through a program of education that teaches you to invest for yourself and become an effective manager of your own wealth—no more relying on others for your financial independence. You can rely on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis that makes you a better investor.

A+ Investor adds to that qualitative teaching by giving you a powerful data suite that helps you whittle down investment decisions to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

Additional Resources About Professional Services Stocks

Want to learn more about Professional Services stocks to see if they could be the right investment for you? Check out some additional resources and articles to help you on your financial journey.

• 5 Undervalued Professional Services Stocks for Friday, October 18
• 5 Undervalued Professional Services Stocks for Thursday, October 17
• 6 Undervalued Professional Services Stocks for Wednesday, October 16
• 6 Undervalued Professional Services Stocks for Tuesday, October 15

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.