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JD or MELI: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Internet - Commerce sector might want to consider either JD.com, Inc. (JD - Free Report) or MercadoLibre (MELI - 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.

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 emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Currently, JD.com, Inc. has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while MercadoLibre has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). This means that JD's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. 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.

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.

JD currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.72, while MELI has a forward P/E of 44.35. We also note that JD has a PEG ratio of 0.20. 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. MELI currently has a PEG ratio of 1.05.

Another notable valuation metric for JD is its P/B ratio of 1.04. 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, MELI has a P/B of 25.44.

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

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


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