Best Value Stocks to Buy for December 31st

Here are three stocks with buy rank and strong value characteristics for investors to consider today, December 31st:
Maximus MMS: This company, which operates government health and human services programs globally, carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings increasing 15.8% over the last 60 days.
Maximus' has a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 10.62 compared with 14.40 for the industry. The company possesses a Value Score of A.
Virtu Financial VIRT: This market-leading financial services firm that leverages cutting-edge technology to provide execution services and data, analytics and connectivity products to its clients and deliver liquidity to the global markets, carries a Zacks Rank #1, and has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings increasing 4.4% over the last 60 days.
Virtu Financial, Inc. Price and Consensus

Virtu Financial, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Virtu Financial, Inc. Quote
Virtu Financial has a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 6.81 compared with 10.70 for the industry. The company possesses a Value Score of A.
Virtu Financial, Inc. PE Ratio (TTM)

Virtu Financial, Inc. pe-ratio-ttm | Virtu Financial, Inc. Quote
Baytex Energy BTE: This conventional oil and gas income trust, which is focused on maintaining its production and asset base through internal property development and delivering consistent returns to its unitholders, carries a Zacks Rank #1, and has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings increasing 33.3% over the last 60 days.
Baytex Energy Corp Price and Consensus

Baytex Energy Corp price-consensus-chart | Baytex Energy Corp Quote
Baytex Energy has a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 13.49 compared with 14 for the industry. The company possesses a Value Score of A.
See the full list of top ranked stocks here.
Learn more about the Value score and how it is calculated here.
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Maximus, Inc. (MMS): Free Stock Analysis Report
Baytex Energy Corp (BTE): Free Stock Analysis Report
Virtu Financial, Inc. (VIRT): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).



