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TNK or KEX: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Transportation - Shipping stocks are likely familiar with Teekay Tankers (TNK - Free Report) and Kirby (KEX - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Teekay Tankers and Kirby are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that TNK is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

Value investors are also interested in a number of tried-and-true valuation metrics that help show when a company is undervalued at its 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.

TNK currently has a forward P/E ratio of 1.75, while KEX has a forward P/E of 28.36. We also note that TNK has a PEG ratio of 0.58. 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. KEX currently has a PEG ratio of 2.84.

Another notable valuation metric for TNK is its P/B ratio of 0.56. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, KEX has a P/B of 1.19.

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

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


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