TRIP or EBAY: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors looking for stocks in the Internet - Commerce sector might want to consider either TripAdvisor (TRIP) or eBay (EBAY). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? 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 Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Currently, TripAdvisor has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while eBay 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 TRIP has an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

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.

TRIP currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.36, while EBAY has a forward P/E of 17.62. We also note that TRIP has a PEG ratio of 1.40. 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. EBAY currently has a PEG ratio of 1.89.

Another notable valuation metric for TRIP is its P/B ratio of 2.7. 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, EBAY has a P/B of 10.78.

Based on these metrics and many more, TRIP holds a Value grade of A, while EBAY has a Value grade of D.

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

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

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