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INTR vs. AXP: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors with an interest in Financial - Miscellaneous Services stocks have likely encountered both Inter & Co. Inc. (INTR - Free Report) and American Express (AXP - 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.

We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great 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.

Inter & Co. Inc. and American Express are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that INTR is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

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.

INTR currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.32, while AXP has a forward P/E of 18.30. We also note that INTR has a PEG ratio of 0.33. 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. AXP currently has a PEG ratio of 1.31.

Another notable valuation metric for INTR is its P/B ratio of 1.85. 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, AXP has a P/B of 6.46.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to INTR's Value grade of A and AXP's Value grade of C.

INTR has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than AXP, so it seems like value investors will conclude that INTR is the superior option right now.

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