Just been looking at these two waste management plays and there's actually an interesting value story here. A lot of people probably lump MEG and WM together, but the valuations tell a pretty different story if you dig into the numbers.

So here's what caught my attention. Montrose Environmental is currently sitting with a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy) while Waste Management is at 3 (Hold). That alone suggests MEG has seen better momentum in earnings revisions lately. But the real interesting part is when you look at the actual valuation metrics.

MEG is trading at a forward P/E of around 17.13, which honestly looks pretty reasonable. WM though? They're at 29.88. That's a significant gap. When you factor in growth expectations with the PEG ratio, MEG comes in at 0.91 versus WM's 2.57. So MEG is not only cheaper on earnings, but you're getting better growth relative to what you're paying.

There's more though. The price-to-book metric shows MEG at 2.22 while WM sits at 9.82. That's a massive difference in how the market is valuing their assets. Based on all these traditional value metrics, MEG is pulling ahead pretty clearly. The Value grade reflects this too - MEG gets a B while WM lands at C.

Looking at this holistically, if you're hunting for undervalued opportunities in the waste services space, MEG seems to be offering better fundamentals right now. The earnings outlook is stronger, and the valuation multiples across the board are more attractive. That's the kind of setup value investors typically look for.