Investors interested in Transportation - Shipping stocks are likely familiar with Teekay Tankers (TNK) and Kirby (KEX). But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

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, Teekay Tankers has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Kirby has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). Investors should feel comfortable knowing that TNK likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than KEX 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 Value category of the Style Scores system identifies undervalued companies by looking at a number of key metrics. These include the long-favored P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that help us determine a company's fair value.

TNK currently has a forward P/E ratio of 3.94, while KEX has a forward P/E of 20.12. We also note that TNK has a PEG ratio of 1.31. 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. KEX currently has a PEG ratio of 1.68.

Another notable valuation metric for TNK is its P/B ratio of 1.26. 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, KEX has a P/B of 1.84.

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

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

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