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AXP or MCO: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors with an interest in Financial - Miscellaneous Services stocks have likely encountered both American Express (AXP - Free Report) and Moody's (MCO - 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.

The best way to find great value stocks is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Right now, both American Express and Moody's are sporting a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy). The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that both of these companies have improving earnings outlooks. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

Value investors analyze a variety of traditional, tried-and-true metrics to help find companies that they believe are undervalued at their 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.

AXP currently has a forward P/E ratio of 20.49, while MCO has a forward P/E of 43.71. We also note that AXP has a PEG ratio of 1.49. 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. MCO currently has a PEG ratio of 3.29.

Another notable valuation metric for AXP is its P/B ratio of 6.47. 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, MCO has a P/B of 22.87.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to AXP's Value grade of B and MCO's Value grade of F.

Both AXP and MCO are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that AXP is the superior value option right now.


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