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FOCS vs. SEIC: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Financial - Investment Management sector have probably already heard of Focus Financial Partners Inc. and SEI Investments (SEIC - 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 emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Focus Financial Partners Inc. and SEI Investments are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This means that FOCS's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

Value investors analyze a variety of traditional, tried-and-true metrics to help find companies 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.

FOCS currently has a forward P/E ratio of 11.19, while SEIC has a forward P/E of 15.19. We also note that FOCS has a PEG ratio of 0.44. 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. SEIC currently has a PEG ratio of 1.27.

Another notable valuation metric for FOCS is its P/B ratio of 3.36. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, SEIC has a P/B of 4.43.

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

FOCS has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than SEIC, so it seems like value investors will conclude that FOCS is the superior option right now.


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