Investors with an interest in Transportation - Equipment and Leasing stocks have likely encountered both Greenbrier Companies (GBX) and Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies (WAB). But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

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

Greenbrier Companies has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This means that GBX's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

GBX currently has a forward P/E ratio of 9.53, while WAB has a forward P/E of 21.69. We also note that GBX has a PEG ratio of 0.81. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. WAB currently has a PEG ratio of 1.45.

Another notable valuation metric for GBX is its P/B ratio of 1.12. 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, WAB has a P/B of 3.14.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to GBX's Value grade of A and WAB's Value grade of D.

GBX 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 GBX is likely the superior value option right now.

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Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (The) (GBX) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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