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CPAY or MA: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors with an interest in Financial Transaction Services stocks have likely encountered both Corpay (CPAY - Free Report) and MasterCard (MA - 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.

Everyone has their own methods for finding great value opportunities, but our model includes pairing an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system with a strong Zacks Rank. 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.

Corpay 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 CPAY 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.

CPAY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 12.93, while MA has a forward P/E of 24.70. We also note that CPAY has a PEG ratio of 0.90. 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. MA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.51.

Another notable valuation metric for CPAY is its P/B ratio of 6.64. 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 63.63.

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

CPAY 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 CPAY is likely the superior value option right now.

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