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SYF vs. AXP: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Financial - Miscellaneous Services sector have probably already heard of Synchrony (SYF - Free Report) and American Express (AXP - 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.

Both Synchrony and American Express have a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy) right now. This means that both companies have witnessed positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that both of these stocks have an improving earnings outlook. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

SYF currently has a forward P/E ratio of 6.79, while AXP has a forward P/E of 19.08. We also note that SYF has a PEG ratio of 0.29. 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. AXP currently has a PEG ratio of 0.95.

Another notable valuation metric for SYF is its P/B ratio of 1.94. 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, AXP has a P/B of 5.54.

These metrics, and several others, help SYF earn a Value grade of A, while AXP has been given a Value grade of C.

Both SYF and AXP are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that SYF is the superior value option right now.


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