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ECHO vs. ASR: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Transportation - Services sector have probably already heard of Echo Global Logistics and Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASR - 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.

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 favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Right now, Echo Global Logistics is sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that ECHO 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 analyze a variety of traditional, tried-and-true metrics to help find companies 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.

ECHO currently has a forward P/E ratio of 14.75, while ASR has a forward P/E of 19.81. We also note that ECHO has a PEG ratio of 0.84. 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. ASR currently has a PEG ratio of 4.50.

Another notable valuation metric for ECHO is its P/B ratio of 1.88. 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, ASR has a P/B of 2.50.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to ECHO's Value grade of B and ASR's Value grade of D.

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


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