Investors interested in stocks from the Diversified Operations sector have probably already heard of Mitsui & Co. (MITSY) and Griffon (GFF). 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.
Mitsui & Co. and Griffon are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that MITSY likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than GFF has recently. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.
Value investors are also interested in a number of tried-and-true valuation metrics that help show when 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.
MITSY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 15.36, while GFF has a forward P/E of 16.57. We also note that MITSY has a PEG ratio of 1.34. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. GFF currently has a PEG ratio of 1.43.
Another notable valuation metric for MITSY is its P/B ratio of 1.83. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, GFF has a P/B of 42.51.
These metrics, and several others, help MITSY earn a Value grade of B, while GFF has been given a Value grade of C.
MITSY stands above GFF thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that MITSY is the superior value option right now.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
