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WLKP or FUL: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Chemical - Specialty stocks are likely familiar with Westlake Chemical Partners (WLKP - Free Report) and H. B. Fuller (FUL - 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 proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Westlake Chemical Partners has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while H. B. Fuller 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 WLKP is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is only part of the picture 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.

WLKP currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.66, while FUL has a forward P/E of 14.18. We also note that WLKP has a PEG ratio of 0.67. 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. FUL currently has a PEG ratio of 1.18.

Another notable valuation metric for WLKP is its P/B ratio of 0.74. 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, FUL has a P/B of 2.02.

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

WLKP has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than FUL, so it seems like value investors will conclude that WLKP is the superior option right now.


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