GILD vs. ILMN: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics sector might want to consider either Gilead Sciences (GILD) or Illumina (ILMN). 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 Zacks Rank is a proven strategy that targets companies with positive earnings estimate revision trends, while our Style Scores work to grade companies based on specific traits.

Currently, Gilead Sciences has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Illumina has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). Investors should feel comfortable knowing that GILD likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than ILMN has recently. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

Value investors also tend to look at a number of traditional, tried-and-true figures to help them find stocks 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.

GILD currently has a forward P/E ratio of 11.38, while ILMN has a forward P/E of 54.63. We also note that GILD has a PEG ratio of 3.29. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. ILMN currently has a PEG ratio of 4.97.

Another notable valuation metric for GILD is its P/B ratio of 4.13. 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, ILMN has a P/B of 10.69.

These metrics, and several others, help GILD earn a Value grade of B, while ILMN has been given a Value grade of D.

GILD sticks out from ILMN in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that GILD is the better option right now.


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