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CMPGY or WEN: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Retail - Restaurants sector have probably already heard of Compass Group PLC (CMPGY - Free Report) and Wendy's (WEN - 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.

There are plenty of strategies for discovering value stocks, but we have found that pairing a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system produces the best returns. The proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Right now, Compass Group PLC is sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Wendy's has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that CMPGY has an improving earnings outlook. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

CMPGY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 22.21, while WEN has a forward P/E of 25.57. We also note that CMPGY has a PEG ratio of 1.27. 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. WEN currently has a PEG ratio of 2.

Another notable valuation metric for CMPGY is its P/B ratio of 5.32. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, WEN has a P/B of 10.49.

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

CMPGY 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 CMPGY is likely the superior value option right now.


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