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EVTC vs. MA: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Financial Transaction Services sector might want to consider either Evertec (EVTC - Free Report) or MasterCard (MA - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

Everyone has their own methods for finding great value opportunities, but our model includes pairing an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system with a strong Zacks Rank. The Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Evertec has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while MasterCard has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that EVTC is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. 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.

EVTC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 7.97, while MA has a forward P/E of 29.87. We also note that EVTC has a PEG ratio of 1.00. 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. MA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.93.

Another notable valuation metric for EVTC is its P/B ratio of 2.85. 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, MA has a P/B of 64.47.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to EVTC's Value grade of A and MA's Value grade of D.

EVTC 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 EVTC is likely the superior value option right now.


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