Investors interested in Retail - Home Furnishings stocks are likely familiar with Haverty Furniture (HVT) and Williams-Sonoma (WSM). But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.
We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.
Both Haverty Furniture and Williams-Sonoma have a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that both of these stocks have an improving earnings outlook since the Zacks Rank favors companies that have witnessed positive analyst estimate revisions. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.
Value investors also try to analyze a wide range of traditional figures and metrics to help determine whether a company is undervalued at its 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.
HVT currently has a forward P/E ratio of 18.62, while WSM has a forward P/E of 26.46. We also note that HVT has a PEG ratio of 1.55. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. WSM currently has a PEG ratio of 2.72.
Another notable valuation metric for HVT is its P/B ratio of 1.58. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, WSM has a P/B of 15.63.
Based on these metrics and many more, HVT holds a Value grade of A, while WSM has a Value grade of D.
Both HVT and WSM are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that HVT is the superior value option right now.
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Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (HVT): Free Stock Analysis Report
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSM): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).