Investors interested in Financial - Miscellaneous Services stocks are likely familiar with Orix (IX) and American Express (AXP). 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.

The best way to find great value stocks is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive 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.

Right now, Orix is sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while American Express has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). Investors should feel comfortable knowing that IX likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than AXP has recently. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

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.

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.

IX currently has a forward P/E ratio of 7.83, while AXP has a forward P/E of 18.69. We also note that IX has a PEG ratio of 0.79. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. AXP currently has a PEG ratio of 1.39.

Another notable valuation metric for IX is its P/B ratio of 0.83. 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, AXP has a P/B of 6.37.

Based on these metrics and many more, IX holds a Value grade of A, while AXP has a Value grade of C.

IX sticks out from AXP in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that IX is the better option right now.

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

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