MARUY or HTHIY: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Diversified Operations sector might want to consider either Marubeni Corp. (MARUY) or Hitachi Ltd. (HTHIY). But which of these two stocks offers value investors a better bang for their buck right now? We'll need to 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.

Marubeni Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that MARUY has an improving earnings outlook. 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 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.

MARUY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.67, while HTHIY has a forward P/E of 19.93. We also note that MARUY has a PEG ratio of 3.98. 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. HTHIY currently has a PEG ratio of 16.21.

Another notable valuation metric for MARUY is its P/B ratio of 1.22. 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, HTHIY has a P/B of 1.77.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to MARUY's Value grade of A and HTHIY's Value grade of C.

MARUY stands above HTHIY thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that MARUY is the superior value option right now.

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