While the UK stock market is at record highs, there are still some stocks which are cheap. The two cheap UK stocks that are worth considering are Premier Foods (PFD) and Melrose Industries (MRO).
Melrose has gone through a major transformation in the last couple of years. Earlier, it was an industrial engineering firm with a focus on acquisitions. Today, it has also entered the aerospace industry, and its transition towards new segments is now almost complete.
quick look shows that Melrose is in a highly profitable business with the potential to generate a lot of cash. On top of that, the P/E ratio of Melrose is also just 12.
To give you some perspective, the industry average P/E is around 30 while Melrose's is only 12. The firm is also a supplier for big companies such as Boeing and Airbus.
But as of late, Melrose is facing supply chain disruptions. This is on top of the changing macroeconomic landscape and the looming threat of tariffs.
Another stock worth exploring is Premier Foods, which is also going through a turnaround strategy. When compared with 5 years ago, the financial situation of Premier Foods has improved a lot.
For starters, the net debt of Premier Foods has gone down while the free cash flow has improved. At the same time, the operating margins of Premier Foods are way higher than those of other firms in the same sector.
In addition, the P/E ratio of Premier Foods is just 13.6, while other companies such as Unilever have a P/E of 22.4. This also highlights that Premier Foods is an undervalued share.
Recently, Premier Foods has also expanded into international markets via its Mr Kipling brand. This means that Premier Foods is now gearing towards more growth from other markets.
Overall, both Premier Foods and Melrose are really great shares and have managed to turn around their financial situation.