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UEIC vs. CTRL: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Electronics - Miscellaneous Products sector have probably already heard of Universal Electronics (UEIC - Free Report) and Control4 . 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 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.

Universal Electronics has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Control4 has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that UEIC is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

UEIC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.56, while CTRL has a forward P/E of 13.87. We also note that UEIC has a PEG ratio of 0.70. 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. CTRL currently has a PEG ratio of 1.26.

Another notable valuation metric for UEIC is its P/B ratio of 1.69. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, CTRL has a P/B of 2.21.

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

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


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