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AMG vs. BLK: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors with an interest in Financial - Investment Management stocks have likely encountered both Affiliated Managers Group (AMG - Free Report) and BlackRock (BLK - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

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.

Affiliated Managers Group and BlackRock are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that AMG has an improving earnings outlook. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

The Style Score Value grade factors in a variety of key fundamental metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a number of other key stats that are commonly used by value investors.

AMG currently has a forward P/E ratio of 9.84, while BLK has a forward P/E of 20.39. We also note that AMG has a PEG ratio of 0.46. 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. BLK currently has a PEG ratio of 1.22.

Another notable valuation metric for AMG is its P/B ratio of 2.44. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, BLK has a P/B of 2.86.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to AMG's Value grade of B and BLK's Value grade of F.

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

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