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

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Investors interested in stocks from the Diversified Operations sector have probably already heard of Marubeni Corp. (MARUY - Free Report) and Honeywell International Inc. (HON - Free Report) . 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 proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Marubeni Corp. has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Honeywell International Inc. has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This means that MARUY's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

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.

MARUY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 3.96, while HON has a forward P/E of 21.32. We also note that MARUY has a PEG ratio of 0.53. 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. HON currently has a PEG ratio of 2.23.

Another notable valuation metric for MARUY is its P/B ratio of 0.80. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, HON has a P/B of 6.85.

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

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


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