Investors looking for stocks in the Chemical - Diversified sector might want to consider either Akzo Nobel NV (AKZOY) or Air Liquide (AIQUY). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? 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 favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Currently, both Akzo Nobel NV and Air Liquide are holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy). 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 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 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.

AKZOY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 13.78, while AIQUY has a forward P/E of 27.30. We also note that AKZOY has a PEG ratio of 0.76. 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. AIQUY currently has a PEG ratio of 2.46.

Another notable valuation metric for AKZOY is its P/B ratio of 2.33. 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, AIQUY has a P/B of 3.94.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to AKZOY's Value grade of B and AIQUY's Value grade of D.

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

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Akzo Nobel NV (AKZOY) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Air Liquide (AIQUY) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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