ALGN vs. WST: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

Investors looking for stocks in the Medical - Dental Supplies sector might want to consider either Align Technology (ALGN) or West Pharmaceutical Services (WST). 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.

Align Technology and West Pharmaceutical Services are both sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that both of these companies have improving earnings outlooks. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

ALGN currently has a forward P/E ratio of 15.21, while WST has a forward P/E of 32.19. We also note that ALGN has a PEG ratio of 1.51. 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. WST currently has a PEG ratio of 2.71.

Another notable valuation metric for ALGN is its P/B ratio of 3.02. 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, WST has a P/B of 5.78.

These metrics, and several others, help ALGN earn a Value grade of B, while WST has been given a Value grade of D.

Both ALGN and WST are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that ALGN is the superior value option right now.

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Align Technology, Inc. (ALGN): Free Stock Analysis Report

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (WST): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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