Investors looking for stocks in the Financial - Investment Management sector might want to consider either AllianceBernstein (AB) or SEI Investments (SEIC). 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 Zacks Rank is a proven strategy that targets companies with positive earnings estimate revision trends, while our Style Scores work to grade companies based on specific traits.

Currently, AllianceBernstein has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while SEI Investments has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that AB has an improving earnings 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.

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.

AB currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.26, while SEIC has a forward P/E of 15.33. We also note that AB has a PEG ratio of 0.80. 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. SEIC currently has a PEG ratio of 1.28.

Another notable valuation metric for AB is its P/B ratio of 2. 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, SEIC has a P/B of 4.26.

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

AB 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 AB is likely the superior value option right now.

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AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (AB) : Free Stock Analysis Report

SEI Investments Company (SEIC) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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