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BCOR vs. SAIL: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors with an interest in Technology Services stocks have likely encountered both Blucora and SailPoint Technologies . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's 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 proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Blucora has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while SailPoint Technologies has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that BCOR likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than SAIL has recently. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

Value investors are also interested in a number of tried-and-true valuation metrics that help show when 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.

BCOR currently has a forward P/E ratio of 22.66, while SAIL has a forward P/E of 320.12. We also note that BCOR has a PEG ratio of 1.13. 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. SAIL currently has a PEG ratio of 21.34.

Another notable valuation metric for BCOR is its P/B ratio of 3.14. 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, SAIL has a P/B of 7.02.

These metrics, and several others, help BCOR earn a Value grade of B, while SAIL has been given a Value grade of F.

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