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BASFY vs. APD: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Chemical - Diversified sector might want to consider either BASF SE (BASFY - Free Report) or Air Products and Chemicals (APD - 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.

There are plenty of strategies for discovering value stocks, but we have found that pairing a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system produces the best returns. The Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

BASF SE has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Air Products and Chemicals has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that BASFY has an improving earnings outlook. 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 grades stocks based on a number of key metrics, including the tried-and-true P/E ratio, the P/S ratio, earnings yield, and cash flow per share, as well as a variety of other fundamentals that value investors frequently use.

BASFY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 18.84, while APD has a forward P/E of 22.10. We also note that BASFY has a PEG ratio of 1.27. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. APD currently has a PEG ratio of 2.56.

Another notable valuation metric for BASFY is its P/B ratio of 1.39. 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, APD has a P/B of 3.58.

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

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

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