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ACM or ALTR: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors with an interest in Engineering - R and D Services stocks have likely encountered both Aecom Technology (ACM - Free Report) and Altair Engineering . But which of these two companies is the best option for those looking for undervalued stocks? Let's take a closer look.

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.

Both Aecom Technology and Altair Engineering have a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy) right now. This means that both companies have witnessed positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that both of these stocks have an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

ACM currently has a forward P/E ratio of 22.81, while ALTR has a forward P/E of 79.55. We also note that ACM has a PEG ratio of 1.98. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. ALTR currently has a PEG ratio of 6.63.

Another notable valuation metric for ACM is its P/B ratio of 6.58. 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, ALTR has a P/B of 10.69.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to ACM's Value grade of B and ALTR's Value grade of F.

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


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