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IMKTA or WMT: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Retail - Supermarkets stocks are likely familiar with Ingles (IMKTA - Free Report) and Walmart (WMT - 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 emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Ingles and Walmart are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This means that IMKTA's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst 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.

IMKTA currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.65, while WMT has a forward P/E of 24.06. We also note that IMKTA has a PEG ratio of 1.04. 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. WMT currently has a PEG ratio of 4.86.

Another notable valuation metric for IMKTA is its P/B ratio of 1.40. 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, WMT has a P/B of 4.35.

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

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


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