Investors looking for stocks in the Manufacturing - Electronics sector might want to consider either SPX Flow (FLOW Quick QuoteFLOW - Free Report) or A.O. Smith (AOS Quick QuoteAOS - 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.

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 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.

SPX Flow has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while A.O. Smith has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that FLOW has an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

FLOW currently has a forward P/E ratio of 18.37, while AOS has a forward P/E of 22.02. We also note that FLOW has a PEG ratio of 0.47. 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. AOS currently has a PEG ratio of 1.83.

Another notable valuation metric for FLOW is its P/B ratio of 2.06. 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, AOS has a P/B of 5.67.

These metrics, and several others, help FLOW earn a Value grade of A, while AOS has been given a Value grade of C.

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