Based on key financial metrics such as the price-to-sales ratio, shareholder yield and the price-earnings ratio, the following 3 stocks made the list for top value stocks in the Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals 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 Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals 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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3 Undervalued Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals Stocks

Of course, there are countless value stocks that are worth mentioning, but this is a concise list of the top 3 undervalued stocks in the Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals 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 Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals 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.

AstroNova, Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

AstroNova, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes specialty printers, and data acquisition and analysis systems in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, Central and South America, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Product Identification (PI) and Test & Measurement (T&M;). The PI segment offers tabletop and production-ready digital color label printers, and OEM printing systems under the QuickLabel brand; digital color label mini-presses and inline printing systems under the TrojanLabel brand; and label materials, tags material, inks, toners, and thermal transfer ribbions under the GetLabels brand. This segment also develops and licenses various specialized software programs to design and manage labels and print images; and provides training and support. This segment serves chemicals, cosmetics, food and beverage, medical products, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and other industries; and brand owners, label converters, commercial printers, and packaging manufacturers. The T&M; segment offers airborne printing solutions, such as ToughWriter used to print hard copies of navigation maps, arrival and departure information, flight itineraries, weather maps, performance data, passenger data, and various air traffic control data; ToughSwitch, an ethernet switches used to connect multiple computers or Ethernet devices; TMX data acquisition systems; Daxus DXS-100 distributed data acquisition platform; SmartCorder DDX100 portable data acquisition systems for facility and field testing; and Everest EV-5000, a digital strip chart recording system used primarily in aerospace and defense. This segment serves aerospace and aerospace and defense, automotive, commercial airline, energy, manufacturing, and transportation industries. The company was formerly known as Astro-Med, Inc. and changed its name to AstroNova, Inc. in May 2016. AstroNova, Inc. was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in West Warwick, Rhode Island.

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.

AstroNova, Inc. has a Value Score of 71, which is considered to be undervalued.

When you look at AstroNova, Inc.’s price-to-sales ratio at 0.70 compared to the industry median at 1.02, this company has a lower price relative to revenue compared to its peers. This could make AstroNova, Inc.’s stock more attractive for value investors.

AstroNova, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 17.10 compared to the industry median at 18.50. This means it has a lower share price relative to earnings compared to its peers. This could make AstroNova, Inc. more attractive for value investors.

Now, let’s assess AstroNova, Inc.’s EV/EBITDA ratio, also known as enterprise multiple. At 9.1, when compared to the industry median of 12.8, 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. AstroNova, Inc.’s shareholder yield is lower than its industry median ratio of (1.10%). 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. AstroNova, Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is lower than its industry median ratio of 1.19. This could make AstroNova, Inc. more attractive to investors looking for a new addition to their portfolio.

Lastly, let’s take a look at AstroNova, Inc.’s price-to-free-cash-flow ratio (P/FCF), which can indicate a company’s market value relative to its operating cash flow. AstroNova, Inc.’s price-to-free-cash-flow ratio is lower than its industry median ratio of 16.40. This could make AstroNova, Inc. more attractive because the lower P/FCF ratio indicates that AstroNova, 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.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company provides solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. It operates in six segments: Compute, HPC & AI, Storage, Intelligent Edge, Financial Services, and Corporate Investments and Other. The company offers general purpose servers for multi-workload computing and workload-optimized servers; HPE ProLiant rack and tower servers; HPE Synergy; HPE Alletra, HPE GreenLake, Zerto, HPE InfoSight, and HPE CloudPhysics storage products; HPE Cray EX, HPE Cray XD, and converged edge systems; and HPE Superdome Flex, HPE Nonstop, and HPE Integrity products. It also provides HPE Aruba products that includes hardware products, such as Wi-Fi access points, switches, and gateways; HPE Aruba Networking software and services comprising cloud-based management, network management and access control, analytics and assurance, software-defined wide-area networking, network security, analytics and assurance, and location services software; and professional and support services, as well as as-a-service and consumption models. In addition, the company offers leasing, financing, IT consumption, and utility programs and asset management services for customers to facilitate technology deployment models and the acquisition of various IT solutions, including hardware, software, and services from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others; consultative-led services; HPE Ezmeral Container Platform; HPE Ezmeral Software Container Platform and HPE Ezmeral Software Data Fabric; OpsRamp; and Hewlett Packard Labs. It serves commercial and large enterprise groups, such as business and public sector enterprises; and through various partners comprising resellers, distribution partners, original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendors, systems integrators, and advisory firms. The company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Spring, 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.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company has a Value Score of 74, which is considered to be undervalued.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company’s price-earnings ratio is 14.9 compared to the industry median at 18.5. This means that it has a lower price relative to its earnings compared to its peers. This makes Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company more attractive for value investors.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company’s price-to-book ratio is lower than its peers. This could make Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company more attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 1.19.

You can read more about Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company’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.

Xerox Holdings Corporation’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Xerox Holdings Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a workplace technology company that integrates hardware, services, and software for enterprises in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Print and Other; and FITTLE. The Print and Other segment designs, develops, and sells document systems, solutions, and services; and IT and software products and services. The FITTLE segment offers financing solutions for direct channel customer purchases; and lease financing to end-users. It also offers workplace solutions comprising desktop monochrome, color, and multifunction printers, and ConnectKey software; digital printing presses and light production devices; and digital services that support workflow automation, personalization and communication software, content management solutions, and digitization services. In addition, the company provides graphic communications, in-plant, and production solutions; FreeFlow, a software solutions for the automation and integration of processing of print job comprising file preparation, final production, and electronic publishing; and IT services, end user computing devices, network infrastructure, and communications technology, as well as technology product support, professional engineering, and commercial robotic process automation. Further, it sells paper products and standalone software, such as CareAR, DocuShare, and XMPie; and invests in startups. The company sells its products through its direct sales force, distributors, independent agents, dealers, value-added resellers, systems integrators, and e-commerce marketplaces. The company was formerly known as Xerox Corporation and changed its name to Xerox Holdings Corporation in August 2019. Xerox Holdings Corporation was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.

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.

Xerox Holdings Corporation has a Value Score of 92, which is considered to be undervalued.

Xerox Holdings Corporation’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Xerox Holdings Corporation less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 1.19.

You can read more about Xerox Holdings 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.

Other Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals 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 Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals stocks as well as other industrys.

Choosing Which of the 3 Best Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals 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.

• AstroNova, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of B.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company stock has a Value Grade of B.
• Xerox Holdings Corporation stock has a Value Grade of A.

Now that you have a bit more background about each of the 3 undervalued stocks in the Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals 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 Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals Stocks

Want to learn more about Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals 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.

• 3 Undervalued Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals Stocks for Friday, October 18
• 3 Undervalued Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals Stocks for Thursday, October 17
• 3 Undervalued Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals Stocks for Wednesday, October 16
• 3 Undervalued Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals Stocks for Thursday, October 10

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