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AMN vs. MRSH: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors interested in Business - Services stocks are likely familiar with AMN Healthcare Services (AMN - Free Report) and Marsh (MRSH - 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.

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

Currently, AMN Healthcare Services has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Marsh has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). Investors should feel comfortable knowing that AMN likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than MRSH has recently. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

AMN currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.81, while MRSH has a forward P/E of 17.29. We also note that AMN has a PEG ratio of 0.86. 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. MRSH currently has a PEG ratio of 2.66.

Another notable valuation metric for AMN is its P/B ratio of 1.25. 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, MRSH has a P/B of 5.82.

Based on these metrics and many more, AMN holds a Value grade of A, while MRSH has a Value grade of C.

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

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