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PH vs. NDSN: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors with an interest in Manufacturing - General Industrial stocks have likely encountered both Parker-Hannifin (PH - Free Report) and Nordson (NDSN - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's 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 favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Parker-Hannifin and Nordson are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This means that PH'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 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.

PH currently has a forward P/E ratio of 15.27, while NDSN has a forward P/E of 23.66. We also note that PH has a PEG ratio of 1.30. 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. NDSN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.82.

Another notable valuation metric for PH is its P/B ratio of 4.28. 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, NDSN has a P/B of 6.10.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to PH's Value grade of B and NDSN's Value grade of D.

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


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