Investors looking for stocks in the Financial - Miscellaneous Services sector might want to consider either Orix (IX) or Blackstone Inc. (BX). 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.
Orix has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Blackstone Inc. has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that IX likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than BX has recently. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.
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 grades stocks based on a number of key metrics, including the tried-and-true P/E ratio, the P/S ratio, earnings yield, and cash flow per share, as well as a variety of other fundamentals that value investors frequently use.
IX currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.49, while BX has a forward P/E of 20.48. We also note that IX has a PEG ratio of 0.84. 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. BX currently has a PEG ratio of 1.31.
Another notable valuation metric for IX is its P/B ratio of 1.45. 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, BX has a P/B of 4.48.
These metrics, and several others, help IX earn a Value grade of A, while BX has been given a Value grade of D.
IX has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than BX, so it seems like value investors will conclude that IX is the superior option right now.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).