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ARCB vs. SAIA: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors with an interest in Transportation - Truck stocks have likely encountered both ArcBest (ARCB - Free Report) and Saia (SAIA - 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 proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

ArcBest has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Saia has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This means that ARCB's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

Value investors also try to analyze a wide range of traditional figures and metrics to help determine whether 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.

ARCB currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.77, while SAIA has a forward P/E of 28.26. We also note that ARCB has a PEG ratio of 0.48. 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. SAIA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.19.

Another notable valuation metric for ARCB is its P/B ratio of 1.68. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, SAIA has a P/B of 5.30.

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

ARCB sticks out from SAIA in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that ARCB is the better option right now.


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