Investors interested in stocks from the Insurance - Multi line sector have probably already heard of Fidelity National Financial (FNF) and Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. (ZURVY). But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.
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 puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.
Fidelity National Financial and Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that FNF likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than ZURVY has recently. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.
Value investors also try to analyze a wide range of traditional figures and metrics to help determine whether a company is undervalued at its 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.
FNF currently has a forward P/E ratio of 7.58, while ZURVY has a forward P/E of 15.02. We also note that FNF has a PEG ratio of 0.58. 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. ZURVY currently has a PEG ratio of 3.26.
Another notable valuation metric for FNF is its P/B ratio of 1.2. 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, ZURVY has a P/B of 3.43.
These are just a few of the metrics contributing to FNF's Value grade of A and ZURVY's Value grade of D.
FNF has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than ZURVY, so it seems like value investors will conclude that FNF is the superior option right now.
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Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. (ZURVY) : Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
