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VEOEY vs. AWK: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Utility - Water Supply sector might want to consider either Veolia Environnement SA (VEOEY - Free Report) or American Water Works (AWK - 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 proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Veolia Environnement SA has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while American Water Works has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that VEOEY 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 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.

VEOEY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 13.48, while AWK has a forward P/E of 24.74. We also note that VEOEY has a PEG ratio of 1.57. 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. AWK currently has a PEG ratio of 3.34.

Another notable valuation metric for VEOEY is its P/B ratio of 1.5. 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, AWK has a P/B of 2.58.

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

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


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American Water Works Company, Inc. (AWK) - free report >>

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