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CTS or LFUS: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Electronics - Miscellaneous Components sector might want to consider either CTS (CTS - Free Report) or Littelfuse (LFUS - 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 Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

CTS and Littelfuse are both sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that these stocks have improving earnings outlooks. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

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.

CTS currently has a forward P/E ratio of 20.80, while LFUS has a forward P/E of 25.69. We also note that CTS has a PEG ratio of 1.30. 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. LFUS currently has a PEG ratio of 2.14.

Another notable valuation metric for CTS is its P/B ratio of 2.82. 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, LFUS has a P/B of 3.93.

Based on these metrics and many more, CTS holds a Value grade of B, while LFUS has a Value grade of C.

Both CTS and LFUS are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that CTS is the superior value option right now.

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