TRI vs. ULS: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

Investors interested in Business - Services stocks are likely familiar with Thomson Reuters (TRI) and UL Solutions Inc. (ULS). But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

The best way to find great value stocks is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Thomson Reuters and UL Solutions Inc. are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that TRI is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is only part of the picture 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.

Our Value category highlights undervalued companies by looking at a variety of key metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, as well as the P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that have been used by value investors for years.

TRI currently has a forward P/E ratio of 21.49, while ULS has a forward P/E of 38.86. We also note that TRI has a PEG ratio of 1.42. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. ULS currently has a PEG ratio of 3.17.

Another notable valuation metric for TRI is its P/B ratio of 3.53. 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, ULS has a P/B of 13.24.

These metrics, and several others, help TRI earn a Value grade of B, while ULS has been given a Value grade of D.

TRI stands above ULS thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that TRI 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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