Investors with an interest in Financial Transaction Services stocks have likely encountered both Corpay (CPAY) and MasterCard (MA). But which of these two stocks offers value investors a better bang for their buck right now? We'll need to 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.

Corpay has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while MasterCard has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This means that CPAY's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. But this is only part of the picture 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.

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.

CPAY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 15.77, while MA has a forward P/E of 31.42. We also note that CPAY has a PEG ratio of 1.10. 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. MA currently has a PEG ratio of 2.03.

Another notable valuation metric for CPAY is its P/B ratio of 7.75. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, MA has a P/B of 62.79.

Based on these metrics and many more, CPAY holds a Value grade of B, while MA has a Value grade of D.

CPAY has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than MA, so it seems like value investors will conclude that CPAY is the superior option right now.

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Corpay, Inc. (CPAY) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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