Investors interested in stocks from the Oil and Gas - Refining and Marketing sector have probably already heard of World Fuel Services (INT) and Marathon Petroleum (MPC). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Currently, World Fuel Services has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Marathon Petroleum has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that INT is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is only part of the picture 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.

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.

INT currently has a forward P/E ratio of 21.51, while MPC has a forward P/E of 49.92. We also note that INT has a PEG ratio of 4.30. 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. MPC currently has a PEG ratio of 8.32.

Another notable valuation metric for INT is its P/B ratio of 1.05. 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, MPC has a P/B of 1.07.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to INT's Value grade of A and MPC's Value grade of C.

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

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World Fuel Services Corporation (INT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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