ACCO vs. HLN: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

Investors with an interest in Consumer Products - Discretionary stocks have likely encountered both Acco Brands (ACCO) and Haleon PLC Sponsored ADR (HLN). But which of these two companies is the best option for those looking for undervalued stocks? Let's take a closer look.

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.

Acco Brands and Haleon PLC Sponsored ADR are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This means that ACCO's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. 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 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.

ACCO currently has a forward P/E ratio of 4.91, while HLN has a forward P/E of 17.56. We also note that ACCO has a PEG ratio of 0.82. 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. HLN currently has a PEG ratio of 2.24.

Another notable valuation metric for ACCO is its P/B ratio of 0.58. 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, HLN has a P/B of 1.96.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to ACCO's Value grade of A and HLN's Value grade of C.

ACCO is currently sporting an improving earnings outlook, which makes it stick out in our Zacks Rank model. And, based on the above valuation metrics, we feel that ACCO is likely the superior value option right now.

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

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