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MFC vs. BRP: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors interested in Insurance - Life Insurance stocks are likely familiar with Manulife Financial (MFC - Free Report) and BRP Group . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's 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.

Manulife Financial has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while BRP Group 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 MFC is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

The Value category of the Style Scores system identifies undervalued companies by looking at a number of key metrics. These include the long-favored P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that help us determine a company's fair value.

MFC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 7.66, while BRP has a forward P/E of 23.16. We also note that MFC has a PEG ratio of 0.77. 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. BRP currently has a PEG ratio of 0.97.

Another notable valuation metric for MFC is its P/B ratio of 0.99. 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, BRP has a P/B of 2.36.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to MFC's Value grade of A and BRP's Value grade of D.

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


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