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ODP or ULTA: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Retail - Miscellaneous stocks are likely familiar with Office Depot (ODP - Free Report) and Ulta Beauty (ULTA - 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.

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.

Office Depot has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Ulta Beauty has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that ODP has an improving earnings outlook. 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 grades stocks based on a number of key metrics, including the tried-and-true P/E ratio, the P/S ratio, earnings yield, and cash flow per share, as well as a variety of other fundamentals that value investors frequently use.

ODP currently has a forward P/E ratio of 4.80, while ULTA has a forward P/E of 27.25. We also note that ODP has a PEG ratio of 0.40. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. ULTA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.48.

Another notable valuation metric for ODP is its P/B ratio of 0.43. 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, ULTA has a P/B of 10.63.

Based on these metrics and many more, ODP holds a Value grade of A, while ULTA has a Value grade of C.

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


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