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MARUY vs. ITT: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors with an interest in Diversified Operations stocks have likely encountered both Marubeni Corp. (MARUY - Free Report) and ITT (ITT - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

The best way to find great value stocks is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The Zacks Rank is a proven strategy that targets companies with positive earnings estimate revision trends, while our Style Scores work to grade companies based on specific traits.

Marubeni Corp. has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while ITT has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that MARUY likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than ITT has recently. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

MARUY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 5.39, while ITT has a forward P/E of 19.28. We also note that MARUY has a PEG ratio of 0.45. 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. ITT currently has a PEG ratio of 1.51.

Another notable valuation metric for MARUY is its P/B ratio of 1.02. 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, ITT has a P/B of 3.39.

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

MARUY is currently sporting an improving earnings outlook, which makes it stick out in our Zacks Rank model. And, based on the above valuation metrics, we feel that MARUY is likely the superior value option right now.


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