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CORE vs. HCSG: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Business - Services sector have probably already heard of Core-Mark and Healthcare Services (HCSG - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

There are plenty of strategies for discovering value stocks, but we have found that pairing a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system produces the best returns. The Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Core-Mark and Healthcare Services are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), respectively, right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that CORE 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.

CORE currently has a forward P/E ratio of 23.01, while HCSG has a forward P/E of 24.05. We also note that CORE has a PEG ratio of 1.77. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. HCSG currently has a PEG ratio of 2.19.

Another notable valuation metric for CORE is its P/B ratio of 2.90. 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, HCSG has a P/B of 5.57.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to CORE's Value grade of B and HCSG's Value grade of F.

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


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