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UNVR vs. AIQUY: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors interested in Chemical - Diversified stocks are likely familiar with Univar and Air Liquide (AIQUY - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks offers value investors a better bang for their buck right now? We'll need to take a closer look.

We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Univar and Air Liquide are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that UNVR has an improving earnings 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.

UNVR currently has a forward P/E ratio of 14.52, while AIQUY has a forward P/E of 27.61. We also note that UNVR has a PEG ratio of 1.12. 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. AIQUY currently has a PEG ratio of 4.34.

Another notable valuation metric for UNVR is its P/B ratio of 2.23. 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, AIQUY has a P/B of 3.50.

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

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


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