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PAHC vs. ABT: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors interested in Medical - Products stocks are likely familiar with Phibro Animal Health (PAHC - Free Report) and Abbott (ABT - Free Report) . 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.

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.

Right now, Phibro Animal Health is sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Abbott has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that PAHC is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. 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.

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.

PAHC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 14.38, while ABT has a forward P/E of 24.30. We also note that PAHC has a PEG ratio of 1.66. 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. ABT currently has a PEG ratio of 2.82.

Another notable valuation metric for PAHC is its P/B ratio of 3.31. 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, ABT has a P/B of 4.98.

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

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


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