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III or ACN: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Consulting Services sector might want to consider either Information Services Group (III - Free Report) or Accenture (ACN - Free Report) . 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 favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Information Services Group has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Accenture 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 III is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. 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.

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.

III currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.58, while ACN has a forward P/E of 22.54. We also note that III has a PEG ratio of 0.60. 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. ACN currently has a PEG ratio of 2.37.

Another notable valuation metric for III is its P/B ratio of 2.41. 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, ACN has a P/B of 7.16.

Based on these metrics and many more, III holds a Value grade of A, while ACN has a Value grade of C.

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


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