Investors interested in Medical - Outpatient and Home Healthcare stocks are likely familiar with Addus HomeCare (ADUS) and Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (ELAN). But which of these two stocks offers value investors a better bang for their buck right now? We'll need to take a closer look.
We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. 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.
Addus HomeCare has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Elanco Animal Health Incorporated has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that ADUS is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.
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.
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.
ADUS currently has a forward P/E ratio of 16.65, while ELAN has a forward P/E of 23.46. We also note that ADUS has a PEG ratio of 1.41. 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. ELAN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.70.
Another notable valuation metric for ADUS is its P/B ratio of 1.89. 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, ELAN has a P/B of 2.01.
Based on these metrics and many more, ADUS holds a Value grade of B, while ELAN has a Value grade of C.
ADUS sticks out from ELAN in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that ADUS is the better option right now.
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See them now >>Addus HomeCare Corporation (ADUS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (ELAN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
