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Investors with an interest in Retail - Restaurants stocks have likely encountered both Compass Group PLC (CMPGY) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG). 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 Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Currently, Compass Group PLC has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Chipotle Mexican Grill 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 CMPGY is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

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.

CMPGY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 24.03, while CMG has a forward P/E of 52.08. We also note that CMPGY has a PEG ratio of 1.96. 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. CMG currently has a PEG ratio of 2.30.

Another notable valuation metric for CMPGY is its P/B ratio of 7.75. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, CMG has a P/B of 23.56.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to CMPGY's Value grade of B and CMG's Value grade of F.

CMPGY has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than CMG, so it seems like value investors will conclude that CMPGY 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.