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CORE vs. SPSC: 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 SPS Commerce (SPSC - 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.

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 proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Core-Mark and SPS Commerce are both sporting a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy) right now. This means that both companies have witnessed positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that both of these stocks have an improving earnings outlook. 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.

CORE currently has a forward P/E ratio of 23.05, while SPSC has a forward P/E of 47.19. We also note that CORE has a PEG ratio of 2.88. 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. SPSC currently has a PEG ratio of 3.15.

Another notable valuation metric for CORE is its P/B ratio of 2.97. 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, SPSC has a P/B of 5.63.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to CORE's Value grade of A and SPSC's Value grade of D.

Both CORE and SPSC are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that CORE is the superior value option right now.


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