Investors interested in Steel - Speciality stocks are likely familiar with Metallus (MTUS) and NWPX Infrastructure (NWPX). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.
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.
Metallus has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while NWPX Infrastructure has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that MTUS is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is only part of the picture 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 grades stocks based on a number of key metrics, including the tried-and-true P/E ratio, the P/S ratio, earnings yield, and cash flow per share, as well as a variety of other fundamentals that value investors frequently use.
MTUS currently has a forward P/E ratio of 19.91, while NWPX has a forward P/E of 27.99. We also note that MTUS has a PEG ratio of 1.33. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. NWPX currently has a PEG ratio of 2.54.
Another notable valuation metric for MTUS is its P/B ratio of 1.18. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, NWPX has a P/B of 3.32.
These metrics, and several others, help MTUS earn a Value grade of B, while NWPX has been given a Value grade of D.
MTUS has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than NWPX, so it seems like value investors will conclude that MTUS is the superior option right now.
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NWPX Infrastructure, Inc. (NWPX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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.
