Investors looking for stocks in the Building Products - Concrete and Aggregates sector might want to consider either Cemex (CX) or Vulcan Materials (VMC). 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.
Right now, Cemex is sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Vulcan Materials has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that CX is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. 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.
CX currently has a forward P/E ratio of 11.77, while VMC has a forward P/E of 34.96. We also note that CX has a PEG ratio of 1.24. 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. VMC currently has a PEG ratio of 2.41.
Another notable valuation metric for CX is its P/B ratio of 1.13. 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, VMC has a P/B of 4.45.
These metrics, and several others, help CX earn a Value grade of B, while VMC has been given a Value grade of D.
CX sticks out from VMC in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that CX is the better option right now.
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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.
