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PHG or SYK: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Medical - Products sector might want to consider either Royal Philips (PHG - Free Report) or Stryker (SYK - 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.

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

Royal Philips has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Stryker has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that PHG likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than SYK has recently. 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.

PHG currently has a forward P/E ratio of 20.49, while SYK has a forward P/E of 28.93. We also note that PHG has a PEG ratio of 1.76. 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. SYK currently has a PEG ratio of 3.01.

Another notable valuation metric for PHG is its P/B ratio of 3.23. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, SYK has a P/B of 7.41.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to PHG's Value grade of B and SYK's Value grade of C.

PHG 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 PHG is likely the superior value option right now.


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Koninklijke Philips N.V. (PHG) - free report >>

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