EGHT or CWAN: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors looking for stocks in the Internet - Software sector might want to consider either 8x8 (EGHT) or Clearwater Analytics (CWAN). 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.

8x8 has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Clearwater Analytics has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that EGHT likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than CWAN has recently. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

Value investors also tend to look at a number of traditional, tried-and-true figures to help them find stocks that they believe are undervalued at their 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.

EGHT currently has a forward P/E ratio of 6.69, while CWAN has a forward P/E of 31.43. We also note that EGHT has a PEG ratio of 0.77. 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. CWAN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.57.

Another notable valuation metric for EGHT is its P/B ratio of 2.22. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, CWAN has a P/B of 2.61.

Based on these metrics and many more, EGHT holds a Value grade of A, while CWAN has a Value grade of F.

EGHT sticks out from CWAN in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that EGHT is the better option right now.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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