Quality and value are positive signs for Flight Centre Travel
Ben Hobson
Stockopedia2 June 2020
Shares in
Flight Centre Travel (ASX:FLT) are currently trading at 13.5 but a key question for investors is how the economic uncertainty caused by Covid-19 will affect the price.
The answer comes down to judging whether
Flight Centre Travel is well placed to withstand economic shocks and ride out market volatility. To do that, it's essential to look at the profile of the stock to see where its strengths are.
Flight Centre Travel is a player in the Hotels & Entertainment Services sector. The good news is that it scores well against some important financial and technical measures. It's a large-cap share with strong exposure to
two very influential drivers of investment returns:
high quality and a
relatively cheap valuation.
To understand where that shows up, here's a closer look:
GET MORE DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS INTO ASX:FLT »Buying quality at a fair priceGood quality stocks are loved by the market because they're more likely to be solid, dependable businesses. Profitability is important, but so is the firm's financial strength. A track record of improving finances is essential.
One of the stand out quality metrics for Flight Centre Travel is that it passes
5 of the
9 financial tests in the
Piotroski F-Score. The F-Score is a world-class accounting-based checklist for finding stocks with an improving financial health trend. A good F-Score suggests that the company has strong signs of quality.
While quality is important, no-one wants to overpay for a stock, so an appealing valuation is vital too.
With a weaker economy, earnings forecasts are unclear right across the market. But there are some valuation measures that can help, and one of them is the Earnings Yield.
Earnings Yield compares a company's profit with its market valuation (worked out by dividing its operating profit by its enterprise value). It gives you a total value of the stock (including its cash and debt), which makes it easier to compare different stocks. As a percentage, the higher the Earnings Yield, the better value the share.
A rule of thumb for a reasonable Earnings Yield might be 5%, and the Earnings Yield for Flight Centre Travel is currently 12.8%.
In summary, good quality and relatively cheap valuations are pointers to those stocks that are some of the most appealing to contrarian value investors. It's among these shares that genuine mis-pricing can be found. Once the market recognises that these quality firms are on sale, those prices often rebound.
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