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ARCB or SAIA: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Transportation - Truck sector have probably already heard of ArcBest (ARCB - Free Report) and Saia (SAIA - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's 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.

ArcBest has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Saia has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that ARCB has an improving earnings outlook. 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.

ARCB currently has a forward P/E ratio of 11.31, while SAIA has a forward P/E of 29.76. We also note that ARCB has a PEG ratio of 0.51. 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. SAIA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.25.

Another notable valuation metric for ARCB is its P/B ratio of 1.73. 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, SAIA has a P/B of 5.53.

Based on these metrics and many more, ARCB holds a Value grade of A, while SAIA has a Value grade of C.

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


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