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EBAY vs. AMZN: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors with an interest in Internet - Commerce stocks have likely encountered both eBay (EBAY - Free Report) and Amazon (AMZN - 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.

The best way to find great value stocks is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

eBay has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Amazon has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that EBAY likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than AMZN has recently. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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 grades stocks based on a number of key metrics, including the tried-and-true P/E ratio, the P/S ratio, earnings yield, and cash flow per share, as well as a variety of other fundamentals that value investors frequently use.

EBAY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 14.77, while AMZN has a forward P/E of 134.48. We also note that EBAY has a PEG ratio of 1.16. 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. AMZN currently has a PEG ratio of 5.49.

Another notable valuation metric for EBAY is its P/B ratio of 16.86. 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, AMZN has a P/B of 20.58.

These metrics, and several others, help EBAY earn a Value grade of B, while AMZN has been given a Value grade of F.

EBAY sticks out from AMZN in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that EBAY is the better option right now.


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