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URI or AWI: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Building Products - Miscellaneous sector might want to consider either United Rentals (URI - Free Report) or Armstrong World Industries (AWI - Free Report) . But which of these two companies is the best option for those looking for undervalued stocks? 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 is a proven strategy that targets companies with positive earnings estimate revision trends, while our Style Scores work to grade companies based on specific traits.

Currently, both United Rentals and Armstrong World Industries are holding a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy). The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that both of these companies have improving earnings outlooks. 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.

URI currently has a forward P/E ratio of 13.54, while AWI has a forward P/E of 17.95. We also note that URI has a PEG ratio of 2.04. 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. AWI currently has a PEG ratio of 10.88.

Another notable valuation metric for URI is its P/B ratio of 3.98. 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, AWI has a P/B of 7.69.

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

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


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