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ZTO or TFII: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors with an interest in Transportation - Services stocks have likely encountered both ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (ZTO - Free Report) and TFI International Inc. (TFII - 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 proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while TFI International Inc. has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that ZTO has an improving earnings 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.

ZTO currently has a forward P/E ratio of 14.36, while TFII has a forward P/E of 18.49. We also note that ZTO has a PEG ratio of 0.86. 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. TFII currently has a PEG ratio of 2.75.

Another notable valuation metric for ZTO is its P/B ratio of 1.69. 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, TFII has a P/B of 3.79.

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

ZTO 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 ZTO is likely the superior value option right now.


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