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Investors with an interest in Manufacturing - General Industrial stocks have likely encountered both Luxfer (LXFR) and Nordson (NDSN). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

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.

Luxfer has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Nordson has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that LXFR has an improving earnings outlook. 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.

LXFR currently has a forward P/E ratio of 13.77, while NDSN has a forward P/E of 26.49. We also note that LXFR has a PEG ratio of 1.97. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. NDSN currently has a PEG ratio of 2.04.

Another notable valuation metric for LXFR is its P/B ratio of 1.29. 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, NDSN has a P/B of 5.69.

These metrics, and several others, help LXFR earn a Value grade of B, while NDSN has been given a Value grade of D.

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

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.