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HBM or BHP: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Mining - Miscellaneous sector have probably already heard of HudBay Minerals (HBM - Free Report) and BHP (BHP - Free Report) . 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.

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 emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

HudBay Minerals has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while BHP has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that HBM likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than BHP 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.

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.

HBM currently has a forward P/E ratio of 7.96, while BHP has a forward P/E of 11.04. We also note that HBM has a PEG ratio of 0.27. 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. BHP currently has a PEG ratio of 3.68.

Another notable valuation metric for HBM is its P/B ratio of 0.87. 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, BHP has a P/B of 3.15.

These metrics, and several others, help HBM earn a Value grade of A, while BHP has been given a Value grade of D.

HBM has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than BHP, so it seems like value investors will conclude that HBM is the superior option right now.


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