ADUS or ELAN: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors with an interest in Medical - Outpatient and Home Healthcare stocks have likely encountered both Addus HomeCare (ADUS) and Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (ELAN). 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 Zacks Rank is a proven strategy that targets companies with positive earnings estimate revision trends, while our Style Scores work to grade companies based on specific traits.

Addus HomeCare and Elanco Animal Health Incorporated are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This means that ADUS's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

Value investors analyze a variety of traditional, tried-and-true metrics to help find companies that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

The Value category of the Style Scores system identifies undervalued companies by looking at a number of key metrics. These include the long-favored P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that help us determine a company's fair value.

ADUS currently has a forward P/E ratio of 14.16, while ELAN has a forward P/E of 21.35. We also note that ADUS has a PEG ratio of 1.21. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. ELAN currently has a PEG ratio of 2.82.

Another notable valuation metric for ADUS is its P/B ratio of 1.67. 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, ELAN has a P/B of 1.68.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to ADUS's Value grade of B and ELAN's Value grade of C.

ADUS stands above ELAN thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that ADUS is the superior value option right now.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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