VPG or LFUS: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors with an interest in Electronics – Miscellaneous Components stocks have likely encountered both Vishay Precision (VPG) and Littelfuse (LFUS). 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.

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 proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Vishay Precision and Littelfuse are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that VPG likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than LFUS has recently. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

Value investors also tend to look at a number of traditional, tried-and-true figures to help them find stocks that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

The Style Score Value grade factors in a variety of key fundamental metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a number of other key stats that are commonly used by value investors.

VPG currently has a forward P/E ratio of 19.67, while LFUS has a forward P/E of 28.25. We also note that VPG has a PEG ratio of 0.98. 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. LFUS currently has a PEG ratio of 2.57.

Another notable valuation metric for VPG is its P/B ratio of 1.94. 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, LFUS has a P/B of 3.18.

Based on these metrics and many more, VPG holds a Value grade of A, while LFUS has a Value grade of C.

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

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