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HCCI or SMED: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Pollution Control stocks are likely familiar with Heritage-Crystal Clean and Sharps Compliance . 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.

Everyone has their own methods for finding great value opportunities, but our model includes pairing an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system with a strong Zacks Rank. 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, Heritage-Crystal Clean is sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Sharps Compliance has a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell). The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that HCCI has an improving earnings 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.

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.

HCCI currently has a forward P/E ratio of 77.12, while SMED has a forward P/E of 161.20. We also note that HCCI has a PEG ratio of 5.14. 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. SMED currently has a PEG ratio of 7.01.

Another notable valuation metric for HCCI is its P/B ratio of 1.83. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, SMED has a P/B of 4.48.

Based on these metrics and many more, HCCI holds a Value grade of B, while SMED has a Value grade of D.

HCCI has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than SMED, so it seems like value investors will conclude that HCCI is the superior option right now.

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