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MMM vs. HON: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Diversified Operations sector have probably already heard of 3M (MMM - Free Report) and Honeywell International Inc. (HON - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

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 proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

3M and Honeywell International Inc. 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 MMM has an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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 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.

MMM currently has a forward P/E ratio of 12.58, while HON has a forward P/E of 21.25. We also note that MMM has a PEG ratio of 1.32. 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. HON currently has a PEG ratio of 2.20.

Another notable valuation metric for MMM is its P/B ratio of 5.17. 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, HON has a P/B of 6.59.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to MMM's Value grade of B and HON's Value grade of D.

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


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