Investors with an interest in Retail - Apparel and Shoes stocks have likely encountered both Boot Barn (BOOT) and Deckers (DECK). But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

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 Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Right now, Boot Barn is sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Deckers has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy). Investors should feel comfortable knowing that BOOT likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than DECK has recently. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

BOOT currently has a forward P/E ratio of 18.99, while DECK has a forward P/E of 22.73. We also note that BOOT has a PEG ratio of 0.97. 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. DECK currently has a PEG ratio of 1.50.

Another notable valuation metric for BOOT is its P/B ratio of 3.14. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, DECK has a P/B of 7.72.

These metrics, and several others, help BOOT earn a Value grade of B, while DECK has been given a Value grade of C.

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

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Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. (BOOT) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Deckers Outdoor Corporation (DECK) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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