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LSEGY vs. CME: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Securities and Exchanges sector might want to consider either London Stock Exchange Group plc - Unsponsored ADR (LSEGY - Free Report) or CME Group (CME - 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.

London Stock Exchange Group plc - Unsponsored ADR and CME Group are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This means that LSEGY's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

LSEGY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 17.32, while CME has a forward P/E of 20.06. We also note that LSEGY has a PEG ratio of 1.46. 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. CME currently has a PEG ratio of 2.75.

Another notable valuation metric for LSEGY is its P/B ratio of 1.92. 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, CME has a P/B of 3.35.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to LSEGY's Value grade of B and CME's Value grade of D.

LSEGY 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 LSEGY is likely the superior value option right now.

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