Yahoo Finance BLCO or AVTR: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?
Investors interested in stocks from the Medical Services sector have probably already heard of Bausch + Lomb (BLCO) and Avantor, Inc. (AVTR). 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.
There are plenty of strategies for discovering value stocks, but we have found that pairing a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system produces the best returns. The proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.
Bausch + Lomb and Avantor, Inc. are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that BLCO likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than AVTR has recently. 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.
BLCO currently has a forward P/E ratio of 24.93, while AVTR has a forward P/E of 25.41. We also note that BLCO has a PEG ratio of 1.56. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. AVTR currently has a PEG ratio of 1.62.
Another notable valuation metric for BLCO is its P/B ratio of 0.82. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, AVTR has a P/B of 3.32.
These metrics, and several others, help BLCO earn a Value grade of B, while AVTR has been given a Value grade of C.
BLCO sticks out from AVTR in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that BLCO is the better option right now.
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Bausch + Lomb Corporation (BLCO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Avantor, Inc. (AVTR) : Free Stock Analysis Report
