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FHI or CNS: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Financial - Investment Management sector have probably already heard of Federated Hermes (FHI - Free Report) and Cohen & Steers Inc (CNS - 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.

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 Zacks Rank is a proven strategy that targets companies with positive earnings estimate revision trends, while our Style Scores work to grade companies based on specific traits.

Currently, Federated Hermes has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Cohen & Steers Inc has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that FHI has an improving earnings outlook. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

The Value category of the Style Scores system identifies undervalued companies by looking at a number of key metrics. These include the long-favored P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that help us determine a company's fair value.

FHI currently has a forward P/E ratio of 11.17, while CNS has a forward P/E of 24.45. We also note that FHI has a PEG ratio of 0.87. 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. CNS currently has a PEG ratio of 2.40.

Another notable valuation metric for FHI is its P/B ratio of 3.59. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, CNS has a P/B of 7.29.

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

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

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