Investors interested in stocks from the Medical - HMOs sector have probably already heard of Centene (CNC) and Humana (HUM). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.
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 favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.
Right now, Centene is sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Humana has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell). Investors should feel comfortable knowing that CNC likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than HUM has recently. But this is just one piece of the puzzle 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.
Our Value category highlights undervalued companies by looking at a variety of key metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, as well as the P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that have been used by value investors for years.
CNC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.30, while HUM has a forward P/E of 15.85. We also note that CNC has a PEG ratio of 0.72. 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. HUM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.92.
Another notable valuation metric for CNC is its P/B ratio of 1.05. 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, HUM has a P/B of 1.90.
These metrics, and several others, help CNC earn a Value grade of A, while HUM has been given a Value grade of C.
CNC has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than HUM, so it seems like value investors will conclude that CNC is the superior option right now.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
