Investors with an interest in Computers - IT Services stocks have likely encountered both Roper Technologies (ROP) and Jack Henry (JKHY). 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 proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.
Currently, both Roper Technologies and Jack Henry are holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy). The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that both of these companies have improving earnings outlooks. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.
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.
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.
ROP currently has a forward P/E ratio of 15.12, while JKHY has a forward P/E of 19.47. We also note that ROP has a PEG ratio of 1.51. 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. JKHY currently has a PEG ratio of 1.95.
Another notable valuation metric for ROP is its P/B ratio of 1.8. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, JKHY has a P/B of 4.43.
These are just a few of the metrics contributing to ROP's Value grade of B and JKHY's Value grade of C.
Both ROP and JKHY are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that ROP is the superior value option right now.
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Roper Technologies, Inc. (ROP): Free Stock Analysis Report
Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (JKHY): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).