Should You Think About Buying Electricité de France S.A. (EPA:EDF) Now?

Electricité de France S.A. (EPA:EDF) received a lot of attention from a substantial price movement on the ENXTPA over the last few months, increasing to €12.75 at one point, and dropping to the lows of €10.56. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether Electricité de France's current trading price of €10.73 reflective of the actual value of the large-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Let’s take a look at Electricité de France’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.

Check out our latest analysis for Electricité de France

Is Electricité de France still cheap?

According to my relative valuation model, the stock seems to be currently fairly priced. I’ve used the price-to-earnings ratio in this instance because there’s not enough visibility to forecast its cash flows. The stock’s ratio of 17.15x is currently trading slightly above its industry peers’ ratio of 12.19x, which means if you buy Electricité de France today, you’d be paying a relatively reasonable price for it. And if you believe Electricité de France should be trading in this range, then there isn’t really any room for the share price grow beyond what it’s currently trading. Furthermore, it seems like Electricité de France’s share price is quite stable, which means there may be less chances to buy low in the future now that it’s fairly valued. This is because the stock is less volatile than the wider market given its low beta.

What does the future of Electricité de France look like?

Future outlook is an important aspect when you’re looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so let’s also take a look at the company's future expectations. Electricité de France’s earnings over the next few years are expected to double, indicating a very optimistic future ahead. This should lead to stronger cash flows, feeding into a higher share value.

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? EDF’s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around its fair value. However, there are also other important factors which we haven’t considered today, such as the financial strength of the company. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at EDF? Will you have enough conviction to buy should the price fluctuate below the true value?

Are you a potential investor? If you’ve been keeping an eye on EDF, now may not be the most optimal time to buy, given it is trading around its fair value. However, the optimistic forecast is encouraging for EDF, which means it’s worth diving deeper into other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop.

Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters – the fundamentals – before you make a decision on Electricité de France. You can find everything you need to know about Electricité de France in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Electricité de France, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.