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ATCO or BLK: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors with an interest in Financial - Investment Management stocks have likely encountered both Atlas and BlackRock (BLK - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's 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 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.

Atlas has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while BlackRock has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that ATCO is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

The Value category of the Style Scores system identifies undervalued companies by looking at a number of key metrics. These include the long-favored P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that help us determine a company's fair value.

ATCO currently has a forward P/E ratio of 9.79, while BLK has a forward P/E of 20.59. We also note that ATCO has a PEG ratio of 2.45. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. BLK currently has a PEG ratio of 3.66.

Another notable valuation metric for ATCO is its P/B ratio of 0.94. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, BLK has a P/B of 2.84.

These metrics, and several others, help ATCO earn a Value grade of A, while BLK has been given a Value grade of D.

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


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