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Investors looking for stocks in the Financial Transaction Services sector might want to consider either Evertec (EVTC) or Visa (V). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.
There are plenty of strategies for discovering value stocks, but we have found that pairing a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system produces the best returns. The proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.
Both Evertec and Visa have a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that these stocks have improving earnings outlooks. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.
Value investors also tend to look at a number of traditional, tried-and-true figures to help them find stocks that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.
The Style Score Value grade factors in a variety of key fundamental metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a number of other key stats that are commonly used by value investors.
EVTC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 11.12, while V has a forward P/E of 31.22. We also note that EVTC has a PEG ratio of 1.77. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. V currently has a PEG ratio of 2.33.
Another notable valuation metric for EVTC is its P/B ratio of 5.06. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, V has a P/B of 17.52.
These metrics, and several others, help EVTC earn a Value grade of A, while V has been given a Value grade of D.
Both EVTC and V are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that EVTC is the superior value option right now.
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Evertec, Inc. (EVTC) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Visa Inc. (V) : Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).