Investors interested in stocks from the Retail - Discount Stores sector have probably already heard of Burlington Stores (BURL) and Costco (COST). 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 puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Burlington Stores and Costco are both sporting a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that these stocks have improving earnings outlooks. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

Value investors are also interested in a number of tried-and-true valuation metrics that help show when a company is undervalued at its 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.

BURL currently has a forward P/E ratio of 27.48, while COST has a forward P/E of 58.91. We also note that BURL has a PEG ratio of 1.16. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. COST currently has a PEG ratio of 6.32.

Another notable valuation metric for BURL is its P/B ratio of 14.09. 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, COST has a P/B of 19.28.

These metrics, and several others, help BURL earn a Value grade of B, while COST has been given a Value grade of D.

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

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Burlington Stores, Inc. (BURL) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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