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WERN or JBHT: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Transportation - Truck stocks are likely familiar with Werner Enterprises (WERN - Free Report) and JB Hunt (JBHT - 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 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.

Werner Enterprises and JB Hunt are both sporting a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy) right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that both of these companies have improving earnings outlooks. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

WERN currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.97, while JBHT has a forward P/E of 24.30. We also note that WERN has a PEG ratio of 0.99. 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. JBHT currently has a PEG ratio of 1.62.

Another notable valuation metric for WERN is its P/B ratio of 2.15. 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, JBHT has a P/B of 7.05.

These metrics, and several others, help WERN earn a Value grade of B, while JBHT has been given a Value grade of C.

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


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J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (JBHT) - free report >>

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