Investors interested in stocks from the Schools sector have probably already heard of TAL Education (TAL) and Grand Canyon Education (LOPE). 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 favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.
TAL Education has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Grand Canyon Education has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now. This means that TAL's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.
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.
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.
TAL currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.33, while LOPE has a forward P/E of 15.13. We also note that TAL has a PEG ratio of 0.61. 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. LOPE currently has a PEG ratio of 1.01.
Another notable valuation metric for TAL is its P/B ratio of 1.58. 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, LOPE has a P/B of 5.89.
These are just a few of the metrics contributing to TAL's Value grade of B and LOPE's Value grade of C.
TAL is currently sporting an improving earnings outlook, which makes it stick out in our Zacks Rank model. And, based on the above valuation metrics, we feel that TAL is likely the superior value option right now.
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TAL Education Group (TAL): Free Stock Analysis Report
Grand Canyon Education, Inc. (LOPE): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).