After a powerful 2023 Aviva (LSE:AV.) share price continued powerful form in 2024. Year-to-date shares are up 9.8%.

This means that the insurer’s value has increased by 19.7% over the last 12 months. It has returned 15.5% over the last five years. This far outweighs FTSE100 on all three dates. Looking back, Aviva was a shrewd investment.

But now, at £4.76 apiece, is it a good time to consider buying some shares today? I have had Aviva on my watch list for some time now. I want to find out if there is any longer-term value that can be squeezed out of the share price.

Price to earnings

First, I want to measure this by looking at the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. It is one of the best and most common valuation metrics.

Footsie’s average P/E is around 11. Therefore, as you can see below, Aviva’s P/E of 12.6 may not seem valuable at first glance.

However, I still think it’s a good value. This is not only cheaper than the historical average (14), but also cheaper than competing solutions such as Admiral’s Group AND Prudential. On this basis I see its value at £4.67.

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Dividend rate

I also want to look at the dividend yield. This is critical for an investor who wants to continue building a portfolio filled with high-quality stocks that generate stable streams of passive income.

As the chart below shows, Aviva yields a whopping 7.7%. This is more than double the Footsie average (3.6%). This is also significantly more than Admiral Group and Prudential’s payouts. This again signals that Aviva looks like an investment worth considering today.

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Strong business

The stock therefore looks attractive at its current price. However, I also want to take a deeper look at the functioning of the company.

Overall, I’m impressed with what I see. Operating profit increased and costs decreased. A year earlier, the company achieved its cost reduction target of £750 million.

In the first quarter of this year, he provided further positive news. Sales increased in capital and lithe companies. Aviva also continues to streamline its business by focusing on its core markets. It recently completed an exit from its Singapore joint venture for just under £1 billion.”further simplifying the group’s geographic footprint“.

Risk

Every investment involves risk. There are a few I see on Aviva.

For example, streamlining allows an insurance giant to rely on just a few markets. Any impulses in these cases can cause the share price to drop sharply.

Moreover, many people predict that the UK economy will continue to struggle to grow in the coming months, putting a strain on business. We have a general election to deal with, as well as further issues such as inflation and interest rate cuts.

Time to buy?

But all things considered, I think Aviva looks good today. These are stocks I’m watching closely. If I have cash this month, I plan to buy some shares and start building my position.