AXP or MCO: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

MCO AXP

Investors looking for stocks in the Financial - Miscellaneous Services sector might want to consider either American Express (AXP - Free Report) or Moody's (MCO - 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 proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

American Express and Moody's are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that AXP is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. 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.

AXP currently has a forward P/E ratio of 14.66, while MCO has a forward P/E of 32.84. We also note that AXP has a PEG ratio of 1.01. 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. MCO currently has a PEG ratio of 2.99.

Another notable valuation metric for AXP is its P/B ratio of 4.99. 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, MCO has a P/B of 20.85.

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

AXP is currently sporting an improving earnings outlook, which makes it stick out in our Zacks Rank model. And, based on the above valuation metrics, we feel that AXP is likely the superior value option right now.

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