Investors interested in stocks from the Financial - Investment Bank sector have probably already heard of BGC Group (BGC) and Evercore (EVR). 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.
BGC Group has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Evercore has a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell) right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that BGC has an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.
Value investors are also interested in a number of tried-and-true valuation metrics that help show when 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.
BGC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.30, while EVR has a forward P/E of 13.86. We also note that BGC has a PEG ratio of 0.42. 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. EVR currently has a PEG ratio of 1.14.
Another notable valuation metric for BGC is its P/B ratio of 4.39. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, EVR has a P/B of 4.48.
These are just a few of the metrics contributing to BGC's Value grade of B and EVR's Value grade of C.
BGC stands above EVR thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that BGC is the superior value option right now.
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BGC Group, Inc. (BGC): Free Stock Analysis Report
Evercore Inc (EVR): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).