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AXS or CINF: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Insurance - Property and Casualty sector have probably already heard of Axis Capital (AXS - Free Report) and Cincinnati Financial (CINF - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

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.

Axis Capital and Cincinnati Financial are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that AXS likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than CINF has recently. But this is just one piece of the puzzle 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.

AXS currently has a forward P/E ratio of 7.41, while CINF has a forward P/E of 23.05. We also note that AXS has a PEG ratio of 1.48. 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. CINF currently has a PEG ratio of 1.50.

Another notable valuation metric for AXS is its P/B ratio of 1.10. 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, CINF has a P/B of 1.54.

Based on these metrics and many more, AXS holds a Value grade of A, while CINF has a Value grade of C.

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


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