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UniFirst (UniFirst) Graham Number

: $96.62 (As of Feb. 2024)
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Graham Number is a figure that measures a stock's fundamental value by taking into account the company's earnings per share and book value per share. The Graham number is the upper bound of the price range that a defensive investor should pay for the stock. According to the theory, any stock price below the Graham number is considered undervalued, and thus worth investing in.

As of today (2024-04-17), the stock price of UniFirst is $156.16. UniFirst's graham number for the quarter that ended in Feb. 2024 was $96.62. Therefore, UniFirst's Price to Graham Number ratio for today is 1.62.

The historical rank and industry rank for UniFirst's Graham Number or its related term are showing as below:

UNF' s Price-to-Graham-Number Range Over the Past 10 Years
Min: 1.33   Med: 1.74   Max: 2.39
Current: 1.62

During the past 13 years, the highest Price to Graham Number ratio of UniFirst was 2.39. The lowest was 1.33. And the median was 1.74.

UNF's Price-to-Graham-Number is ranked worse than
60.29% of 685 companies
in the Business Services industry
Industry Median: 1.29 vs UNF: 1.62

Graham Number is a combination of asset valuation and earnings power valuation. It is a very conservative way of valuing a stock.


UniFirst Graham Number Historical Data

The historical data trend for UniFirst's Graham Number can be seen below:

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

* Premium members only.

UniFirst Annual Data
Trend Aug14 Aug15 Aug16 Aug17 Aug18 Aug19 Aug20 Aug21 Aug22 Aug23
Graham Number
Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only 113.64 102.22 113.39 95.08 89.76

UniFirst Quarterly Data
May19 Aug19 Nov19 Feb20 May20 Aug20 Nov20 Feb21 May21 Aug21 Nov21 Feb22 May22 Aug22 Nov22 Feb23 May23 Aug23 Nov23 Feb24
Graham Number Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only 99.93 90.96 89.68 94.82 96.62

Competitive Comparison

For the Specialty Business Services subindustry, UniFirst's Price-to-Graham-Number, along with its competitors' market caps and Price-to-Graham-Number data, can be viewed below:

* Competitive companies are chosen from companies within the same industry, with headquarter located in same country, with closest market capitalization; x-axis shows the market cap, and y-axis shows the term value; the bigger the dot, the larger the market cap. Note that "N/A" values will not show up in the chart.


UniFirst Price-to-Graham-Number Distribution

For the Business Services industry and Industrials sector, UniFirst's Price-to-Graham-Number distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where UniFirst's Price-to-Graham-Number falls into.



UniFirst Graham Number Calculation

Graham Number is a concept based on Ben Graham's conservative valuation of companies.

UniFirst's Graham Number for the fiscal year that ended in Aug. 2023 is calculated as

Graham Number
=sqrt of (22.5* Tangible Book per Share *EPS without NRI)
=sqrt of (22.5*64.748*5.53)
=89.76

UniFirst's Graham Number for the quarter that ended in Feb. 2024 is calculated as

Graham Number
=sqrt of (22.5*Tangible Book per Share*EPS without NRI (TTM))
=sqrt of (22.5*67.912*6.11)
=96.62

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.


UniFirst  (NYSE:UNF) Graham Number Explanation

Ben Graham actually did not publish a formula like this. But he wrote in The Intelligent Investor (1948 version) regarding to the criteria for purchases:

Current price should not be more than 15 times average earnings of the past three years.

Current price should not be more than 1.5 times the book value last reported. However, a multiplier of earnings below 15 could justify a correspondingly higher multiplier of assets. As a rule of thumb we suggest that the product of the multiplier times the ratio of price to book value should not exceed 22.5. (This figure corresponds to 15 times earnings and 1.5 times book value. It would admit an issue selling at only 9 times earnings and 2.5 times asset value, etc.)

Unlike valuation methods such as DCF or Discounted Earnings, the Graham number does not take growth into the valuation. Unlike the valuation methods based on book value alone, it takes into account the earnings power. Therefore, the Graham Number is a combination of asset valuation and earnings power valuation.

In general, the Graham number is a very conservative way of valuing a stock. It cannot be applied to companies with negative book values.

UniFirst's Price to Graham number Ratio for today is calculated as

Price to Graham number=Share Price (Today)/Graham number (Q: Feb. 2024 )
=156.16/96.62
=1.62

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.


Be Aware

Please keep these in mind:

1. Graham Number does not take growth into account. Therefore it underestimates the values of the companies that have good earnings growth. We feel that if the earnings per share grows more than 10% a year, Graham Number underestimates the value.
2. Graham Number punishes the companies that have temporarily low earnings. Therefore, an average of earnings makes more sense in the calculation of Graham Number.
3. Graham Numbers underestimates companies that are light with book.


UniFirst Graham Number Related Terms

Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of UniFirst's Graham Number provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.


UniFirst (UniFirst) Business Description

Traded in Other Exchanges
N/A
Address
68 Jonspin Road, Wilmington, MA, USA, 01887
UniFirst Corp provides workplace uniforms, protective clothing, and other workplace products and services to businesses in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The U.S. and Canadian Rental and Cleaning segment that accounts for the majority of the company engages in sales rents and sells clothing and non-garment items, and offers a cleaning service that delivers clean uniforms when it picks up dirty or contaminated ones. Manufacturing segment designs and manufactures uniforms and non-garment items. Specialty garments rental and cleaning segment provides specialty garments, non-garments, and cleaning services for nuclear and classroom applications. The First Aid segment provides safety supplies and pill packaging. The Corporate segment consists of various associated costs.
Executives
David A Difillippo officer: Senior VP of Operations
Matthew Croatti 10 percent owner C/O UNIFIRST CORPORATION, 68 JONSPIN ROAD, WILMINGTON MA 01887
Michael A Croatti officer: Senior VP of Operations C/O UNIFIRST CORPORATION, 68 JONSPIN ROAD, WILMINGTON MA 01887
William Masters Ross officer: Senior VP of Operations C/O UNIFIRST CORPORATION, 68 JONSPIN ROAD, WILMINGTON MA 01887
Shane O'connor officer: Senior VP and CFO 68 JONSPIN ROAD, WILMINGTON MA 01887
Steven S Sintros officer: VP of Finance and CFO 68 JONSPIN RD., WILMINGTON MA 01888
Sergio A Pupkin director C/O SEALED AIR CORPORATION, 2415 CASCADE POINTE BOULEVARD, CHARLOTTE NC 28208
David Martin Katz officer: VP of Sales and Marketing 68 JONSPIN ROAD, WILMINGTON MA 01887
Joseph M Nowicki director C/O BEACON ROOFING SUPPLY, INC., 505 HUNTMAR PARK DRIVE SUITE 300, HERNDON VA 20170
Cynthia Croatti director, 10 percent owner, officer: Executive VP and Treasurer 68 JONSPIN ROAD, WILMINGTON DC 01887
Carol Croatti 10 percent owner 21 JEFFERSON DRIVE, LONDONDERRY NH 03053
The Ronald D Croatti Trust - 1993 10 percent owner C/O CAROL CROATTI, 21 JEFFERSON DRIVE, LONDONDERRY NH 03053
Kathleen M Camilli director
Michael Iandoli director 68 JONSPIN RD, WILMINGTON MA 01887
Phillip L Cohen director 68 JONSPIN ROAD, WILMINGTON MA 01887