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

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Investors interested in Financial Transaction Services stocks are likely familiar with Paypal (PYPL - Free Report) and 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.

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 is a proven strategy that targets companies with positive earnings estimate revision trends, while our Style Scores work to grade companies based on specific traits.

Paypal has a Zacks Rank of #2 (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 PYPL is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

Value investors are also interested in a number of tried-and-true valuation metrics that help show when 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.

PYPL currently has a forward P/E ratio of 9.35, while MA has a forward P/E of 25.74. We also note that PYPL has a PEG ratio of 1.43. 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. MA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.61.

Another notable valuation metric for PYPL is its P/B ratio of 2.26. 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 57.98.

These metrics, and several others, help PYPL earn a Value grade of A, while MA has been given a Value grade of C.

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

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