Fast-Paced Momentum Stock Century Communities Is Still Trading at a Bargain

Momentum investing is essentially the opposite of the tried-and-tested Wall Street adage -- "buy low and sell high." Investors following this investing style typically avoid betting on cheap stocks and waiting long for them to recover. They believe instead that one could make far more money in lesser time by "buying high and selling higher."

Everyone likes betting on fast-moving trending stocks, but it isn't easy to determine the right entry point. These stocks often lose momentum when their future growth potential fails to justify their swelled-up valuation. In that phase, investors find themselves invested in shares that have limited to no upside or even a downside. So, betting on a stock just by looking at the traditional momentum parameters could be risky at times.

It could be safer to invest in bargain stocks that have been witnessing price momentum recently. While the Zacks Momentum Style Score, which pays close attention to trends in a stock's price or earnings, is pretty useful in identifying great momentum stocks, our 'Fast-Paced Momentum at a Bargain' screen comes handy in spotting fast-moving stocks that are still attractively priced.

Century Communities CCS is one of the several great candidates that made it through the screen. While there are numerous reasons why this stock is a great choice, here are the most vital ones:

A dash of recent price momentum reflects growing interest of investors in a stock. With a four-week price change of 6.2%, the stock of this single-family homebuilder is certainly well-positioned in this regard.

While any stock can see a spike in price for a short period, it takes a real momentum player to deliver positive returns for a longer time frame. CCS meets this criterion too, as the stock gained 15.6% over the past 12 weeks.

Moreover, the momentum for CCS is fast paced, as the stock currently has a beta of 1.86. This indicates that the stock moves 86% higher than the market in either direction.

Given this price performance, it is no surprise that CCS has a Momentum Score of A, which indicates that this is the right time to enter the stock to take advantage of the momentum with the highest probability of success.

In addition to a favorable Momentum Score, an upward trend in earnings estimate revisions has helped CCS earn a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Our research shows that the momentum-effect is quite strong among Zacks Rank #1 and #2 stocks. That's because as covering analysts raise their earnings estimates for a stock, more and more investors take an interest in it, helping its price race to keep up.

Most importantly, despite possessing fast-paced momentum features, CCS is trading at a reasonable valuation. In terms of Price-to-Sales ratio, which is considered as one of the best valuation metrics, the stock looks quite cheap now. CCS is currently trading at 0.73 times its sales. In other words, investors need to pay only 73 cents for each dollar of sales.

So, CCS appears to have plenty of room to run, and that too at a fast pace.

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