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 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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3 Undervalued Professional Services 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 Professional Services industry for Monday, November 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.

Resources Connection, Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Resources Connection, Inc. engages in the provision of consulting services to business customers under the Resources Global Professionals (RGP) name in North America, the Asia Pacific, and Europe. The company operates through RGP and Sitrick segments. It provides centralized administrative and finance, marketing, finance, human resources, information technology, payroll, and legal and real estate support services. The company offers services in the areas of transactions, including integration and divestitures, bankruptcy/restructuring, going public readiness and support, financial process optimization, and system implementation; and regulations, such as accounting regulations, internal audit and compliance, data privacy and security, healthcare compliance, and regulatory compliance. It provides transformations services comprising finance transformation, digital transformation, supply chain management, cloud migration, and data design and analytics. The company was formerly known as RC Transaction Corp. and changed its name to Resources Connection, Inc. in August 2000. Resources Connection, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Irvine, 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.

Resources Connection, Inc. has a Value Score of 69, which is considered to be undervalued.

When you look at Resources Connection, Inc.’s price-to-sales ratio at 0.46 compared to the industry median at 1.38, this company has a lower price relative to revenue compared to its peers. This could make Resources Connection, Inc.’s stock more attractive for value investors.

Resources Connection, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 22.90 compared to the industry median at 25.35. This means it has a lower share price relative to earnings compared to its peers. This could make Resources Connection, Inc. more attractive for value investors.

Now, let’s assess Resources Connection, Inc.’s EV/EBITDA ratio, also known as enterprise multiple. At 9.2, when compared to the industry median of 14.1, 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. Resources Connection, Inc.’s shareholder yield is higher than its industry median ratio of 0.70%. 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. Resources Connection, Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is lower than its industry median ratio of 2.90. This could make Resources Connection, Inc. more attractive to investors looking for a new addition to their portfolio.

Lastly, let’s take a look at Resources Connection, Inc.’s price-to-free-cash-flow ratio (P/FCF), which can indicate a company’s market value relative to its operating cash flow. Resources Connection, Inc.’s price-to-free-cash-flow ratio is higher than its industry median ratio of 21.65. This could make Resources Connection, Inc. less attractive because the higher P/FCF ratio indicates that Resources Connection, 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.

Skillsoft Corp.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Skillsoft Corp. provides content and platform and instructor-led training services in the United States and internationally. The company’s Content & Platform segment engages in the sale, marketing, and delivery of its content learning solutions in areas, such as leadership and business, technology and developer, and compliance comprising individualized coaching, as well as technical skill areas. This segment also offers Percipio, an AI-driven online learning platform that delivers a learning experience through SaaS solutions. Its Instructor-Led Training segment provides training solutions, including information technology and business skills for corporations and their employees by guiding its customers throughout their lifelong technology learning journey by offering relevant and up-to-date skills training through instructor-led and self-paced, vendor certified, and other proprietary offerings. The company markets and sells their offerings to businesses of many sizes, government agencies, educational institutions, and resellers. Skillsoft Corp. is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado.

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.

Skillsoft Corp. has a Value Score of 66, which is considered to be undervalued.

Skillsoft Corp.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Skillsoft Corp. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 2.90.

You can read more about Skillsoft 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.

SOS Limited’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

SOS Limited provides data mining and analysis services to corporate and individual members in the People’s Republic of China. It provides marketing data, technology, and solutions for insurance companies; emergency rescue services; and insurance product and health care information portals. The company operates SOS cloud emergency rescue service software as a service platform that offers basic cloud products, such as medical rescue, vehicle rescue, air rescue, financial rescue, and life rescue services; telecommunication, insurance, and bank call services; rescue cards; cooperative cloud systems, including information rescue center, intelligent big data, and intelligent software and hardware; and information cloud systems, such as newsToday and E-commerce Today, information security services, and marketing-related data. It also focuses on cryptocurrency mining, blockchain-based insurance, and security management businesses. The company serves insurance companies, financial institutions, medical institutions, healthcare providers, and other service providers in the emergency rescue services industry. SOS Limited is headquartered in Qingdao, the People’s Republic of China.

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.

SOS Limited has a Value Score of 73, which is considered to be undervalued.

SOS Limited’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make SOS Limited less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 2.90.

You can read more about SOS Limited’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 3 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.

• Resources Connection, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of B.
• Skillsoft Corp. stock has a Value Grade of B.
• SOS Limited stock has a Value Grade of B.

Now that you have a bit more background about each of the 3 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.

• 3 Undervalued Professional Services Stocks for Monday, November 18
• 4 Undervalued Professional Services Stocks for Friday, November 15
• 6 Undervalued Professional Services Stocks for Thursday, November 14
• 4 Undervalued Professional Services Stocks for Wednesday, November 13

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.