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QGEN vs. TECH: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics sector have probably already heard of Qiagen (QGEN - Free Report) and Techne (TECH - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

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 Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Qiagen and Techne are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #4 (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 QGEN is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

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.

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.

QGEN currently has a forward P/E ratio of 20, while TECH has a forward P/E of 66.40. We also note that QGEN has a PEG ratio of 1.12. 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. TECH currently has a PEG ratio of 4.43.

Another notable valuation metric for QGEN is its P/B ratio of 4.07. 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, TECH has a P/B of 10.06.

Based on these metrics and many more, QGEN holds a Value grade of B, while TECH has a Value grade of C.

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


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QIAGEN N.V. (QGEN) - free report >>

Bio-Techne Corp (TECH) - free report >>

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