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EWCZ vs. ELF: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors with an interest in Cosmetics stocks have likely encountered both European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ - Free Report) and e.l.f. Beauty (ELF - 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 favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Right now, European Wax Center, Inc. is sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while e.l.f. Beauty has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). Investors should feel comfortable knowing that EWCZ likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than ELF has recently. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

EWCZ currently has a forward P/E ratio of 7.87, while ELF has a forward P/E of 30.29. We also note that EWCZ has a PEG ratio of 0.43. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. ELF currently has a PEG ratio of 1.95.

Another notable valuation metric for EWCZ is its P/B ratio of 2.7. 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, ELF has a P/B of 8.22.

These metrics, and several others, help EWCZ earn a Value grade of A, while ELF has been given a Value grade of F.

EWCZ 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 EWCZ is likely the superior value option right now.


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