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AHCO or PETQ: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Medical - Products stocks are likely familiar with AdaptHealth Corp. (AHCO - Free Report) and PetIQ (PETQ - 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 proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

AdaptHealth Corp. and PetIQ are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), respectively, right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that AHCO likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than PETQ has recently. But this is only part of the picture 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.

AHCO currently has a forward P/E ratio of 19.41, while PETQ has a forward P/E of 22.14. We also note that AHCO has a PEG ratio of 0.41. 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. PETQ currently has a PEG ratio of 0.89.

Another notable valuation metric for AHCO is its P/B ratio of 1.78. 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, PETQ has a P/B of 2.78.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to AHCO's Value grade of A and PETQ's Value grade of D.

AHCO stands above PETQ thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that AHCO is the superior value option right now.


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