What Defines a Value Stock?

A value stock is traditionally defined in terms of how investors in the marketplace are valuing that company's future growth prospects. Low P/E multiples are good base indicators that the company is undervalued and can most likely be labelled as a value stock.

Benzinga Insights has compiled a list of value stocks in the basic materials sector that may be worth watching:

1. Teck Resources TECK - P/E: 7.68
2. Sociedad Quimica Y Minera SQM - P/E: 5.24
3. Alpha Metallurgical AMR - P/E: 2.17
4. Warrior Met Coal HCC - P/E: 2.9
5. Valhi VHI - P/E: 9.39

Teck Resources has reported Q1 earnings per share at $1.32, which has increased by 65.0% compared to Q4, which was 0.8. Sociedad Quimica Y Minera saw a decrease in earnings per share from 4.03 in Q4 to $2.63 now. Most recently, the company reported a dividend yield of 12.69%, which has increased by 4.48% from last quarter's yield of 8.21%.

Alpha Metallurgical has reported Q1 earnings per share at $17.01, which has increased by 27.23% compared to Q4, which was 13.37. Most recently, the company reported a dividend yield of 1.42%, which has increased by 0.38% from last quarter's yield of 1.04%.

Most recently, Warrior Met Coal reported earnings per share at $3.57, whereas in Q4 earnings per share sat at $1.9. Valhi's earnings per share for Q1 sits at $-0.17, whereas in Q4, they were at -0.33. Its most recent dividend yield is at 2.35%, which has increased by 1.05% from 1.3% in the previous quarter.

The Significance: A value stock may need some time to rebound from its undervalued position. The risk of investing in a value stock is that this emergence may never materialize.