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BCKIY or HWM: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Engineering - R and D Services stocks are likely familiar with Babcock International Group PLC (BCKIY - Free Report) and Howmet (HWM - 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 proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Currently, Babcock International Group PLC has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Howmet 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 BCKIY 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 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.

BCKIY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 12.36, while HWM has a forward P/E of 28.74. We also note that BCKIY has a PEG ratio of 0.35. 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. HWM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.47.

Another notable valuation metric for BCKIY is its P/B ratio of 6.30. 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, HWM has a P/B of 6.50.

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

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


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Babcock International Group PLC (BCKIY) - free report >>

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