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CBT vs. AIQUY: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Chemical - Diversified sector might want to consider either Cabot (CBT - Free Report) or Air Liquide (AIQUY - 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.

Cabot has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Air Liquide has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now. This means that CBT's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. 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.

The Style Score Value grade factors in a variety of key fundamental metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a number of other key stats that are commonly used by value investors.

CBT currently has a forward P/E ratio of 13.02, while AIQUY has a forward P/E of 25.34. We also note that CBT has a PEG ratio of 0.88. 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. AIQUY currently has a PEG ratio of 2.40.

Another notable valuation metric for CBT is its P/B ratio of 3.25. 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, AIQUY has a P/B of 3.43.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to CBT's Value grade of A and AIQUY's Value grade of D.

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


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