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ECHO vs. ASR: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors interested in Transportation - Services stocks are likely familiar with Echo Global Logistics and Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASR - 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.

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.

Echo Global Logistics and Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that ECHO has an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

ECHO currently has a forward P/E ratio of 17.26, while ASR has a forward P/E of 32.02. We also note that ECHO has a PEG ratio of 0.99. 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. ASR currently has a PEG ratio of 7.28.

Another notable valuation metric for ECHO is its P/B ratio of 2.11. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, ASR has a P/B of 2.53.

Based on these metrics and many more, ECHO holds a Value grade of B, while ASR has a Value grade of D.

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


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