When Should You Buy Gates Industrial Corporation plc (NYSE:GTES)?

While Gates Industrial Corporation plc (NYSE:GTES) might not have the largest market cap around , it saw a double-digit share price rise of over 10% in the past couple of months on the NYSE. The company is inching closer to its yearly highs following the recent share price climb. As a mid-cap stock with high coverage by analysts, you could assume any recent changes in the company’s outlook is already priced into the stock. However, what if the stock is still a bargain? Let’s examine Gates Industrial’s valuation and outlook in more detail to determine if there’s still a bargain opportunity.

View our latest analysis for Gates Industrial

What Is Gates Industrial Worth?

According to our price multiple model, which makes a comparison between the company's price-to-earnings ratio and the industry average, the stock price seems to be justfied. In this instance, we’ve used the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio given that there is not enough information to reliably forecast the stock’s cash flows. We find that Gates Industrial’s ratio of 19.99x is trading slightly below its industry peers’ ratio of 21.16x, which means if you buy Gates Industrial today, you’d be paying a decent price for it. And if you believe that Gates Industrial should be trading at this level in the long run, then there’s not much of an upside to gain over and above other industry peers. Although, there may be an opportunity to buy in the future. This is because Gates Industrial’s beta (a measure of share price volatility) is high, meaning its price movements will be exaggerated relative to the rest of the market. If the market is bearish, the company’s shares will likely fall by more than the rest of the market, providing a prime buying opportunity.

What kind of growth will Gates Industrial generate?

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. With profit expected to grow by 89% over the next couple of years, the future seems bright for Gates Industrial. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation.

What This Means For You

Are you a shareholder? It seems like the market has already priced in GTES’s positive outlook, with shares trading around industry price multiples. However, there are also other important factors which we haven’t considered today, such as the track record of its management team. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at GTES? Will you have enough confidence to invest in the company should the price drop below the industry PE ratio?

Are you a potential investor? If you’ve been keeping an eye on GTES, now may not be the most advantageous time to buy, given it is trading around industry price multiples. However, the positive outlook is encouraging for GTES, 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.

With this in mind, we wouldn't consider investing in a stock unless we had a thorough understanding of the risks. While conducting our analysis, we found that Gates Industrial has 1 warning sign and it would be unwise to ignore this.

If you are no longer interested in Gates Industrial, you can use our free platform to see our list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.