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HDELY vs. VMC: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors with an interest in Building Products - Concrete and Aggregates stocks have likely encountered both HeidelbergCement AG (HDELY - Free Report) and Vulcan Materials (VMC - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's 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 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.

Right now, both HeidelbergCement AG and Vulcan Materials are sporting a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy). This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that these stocks have improving earnings outlooks. But this is just one piece of the puzzle 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.

HDELY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.20, while VMC has a forward P/E of 34.65. We also note that HDELY has a PEG ratio of 0.84. 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. VMC currently has a PEG ratio of 1.67.

Another notable valuation metric for HDELY is its P/B ratio of 0.85. 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, VMC has a P/B of 4.24.

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

Both HDELY and VMC are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that HDELY is the superior value option right now.


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