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PRDO or AFYA: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors with an interest in Schools stocks have likely encountered both Perdoceo Education (PRDO - Free Report) and Afya (AFYA - 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.

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.

Perdoceo Education and Afya are sporting Zacks Ranks of #1 (Strong Buy) and #4 (Sell), respectively, right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that PRDO has an improving earnings outlook. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

Value investors also tend to look at a number of traditional, tried-and-true figures to help them find stocks 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.

PRDO currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.64, while AFYA has a forward P/E of 18.17. We also note that PRDO has a PEG ratio of 0.58. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. AFYA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.03.

Another notable valuation metric for PRDO is its P/B ratio of 1.41. 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, AFYA has a P/B of 2.85.

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

PRDO is currently sporting an improving earnings outlook, which makes it stick out in our Zacks Rank model. And, based on the above valuation metrics, we feel that PRDO is likely the superior value option right now.


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