Investors interested in Building Products - Miscellaneous stocks are likely familiar with Holcim Ltd Unsponsored ADR (HCMLY) and TopBuild (BLD). But which of these two companies is the best option for those looking for undervalued stocks? 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.
Holcim Ltd Unsponsored ADR has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while TopBuild has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This means that HCMLY's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.
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.
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.
HCMLY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 22.10, while BLD has a forward P/E of 24.66. We also note that HCMLY has a PEG ratio of 2.09. 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. BLD currently has a PEG ratio of 8.08.
Another notable valuation metric for HCMLY is its P/B ratio of 2.97. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, BLD has a P/B of 6.18.
These are just a few of the metrics contributing to HCMLY's Value grade of B and BLD's Value grade of D.
HCMLY has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than BLD, so it seems like value investors will conclude that HCMLY is the superior option right now.
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Holcim Ltd Unsponsored ADR (HCMLY): Free Stock Analysis Report TopBuild Corp. (BLD): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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