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SFS or MKC: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Food - Miscellaneous sector might want to consider either Smart & Final Stores or McCormick (MKC - 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.

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.

Smart & Final Stores and McCormick are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that SFS 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 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.

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.

SFS currently has a forward P/E ratio of 24.31, while MKC has a forward P/E of 25.47. We also note that SFS has a PEG ratio of 2.21. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. MKC currently has a PEG ratio of 2.83.

Another notable valuation metric for SFS is its P/B ratio of 1.31. 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, MKC has a P/B of 5.46.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to SFS's Value grade of A and MKC's Value grade of C.

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


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