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DVA vs. CHE: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Medical - Outpatient and Home Healthcare sector might want to consider either DaVita HealthCare (DVA - Free Report) or Chemed (CHE - 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 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.

Currently, DaVita HealthCare has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Chemed has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that DVA is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

Value investors are also interested in a number of tried-and-true valuation metrics that help show when 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.

DVA currently has a forward P/E ratio of 12.95, while CHE has a forward P/E of 28.87. We also note that DVA has a PEG ratio of 0.75. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. CHE currently has a PEG ratio of 3.24.

Another notable valuation metric for DVA is its P/B ratio of 6.92. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, CHE has a P/B of 8.76.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to DVA's Value grade of A and CHE's Value grade of C.

DVA stands above CHE thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that DVA is the superior value option right now.


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