Back to top

Image: Bigstock

DAKT vs. KLAC: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

Read MoreHide Full Article

Investors with an interest in Electronics - Miscellaneous Products stocks have likely encountered both Daktronics (DAKT - Free Report) and KLA (KLAC - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's 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 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.

Both Daktronics and KLA have a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that both of these stocks have an improving earnings outlook since the Zacks Rank favors companies that have witnessed positive analyst estimate revisions. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

Value investors also tend to look at a number of traditional, tried-and-true figures to help them find stocks 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.

DAKT currently has a forward P/E ratio of 14.36, while KLAC has a forward P/E of 30.97. We also note that DAKT has a PEG ratio of 0.57. 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. KLAC currently has a PEG ratio of 1.49.

Another notable valuation metric for DAKT is its P/B ratio of 2.66. 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, KLAC has a P/B of 34.43.

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

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

Published in