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DTE vs. SO: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Utility - Electric Power sector might want to consider either DTE Energy (DTE - Free Report) or Southern Co. (SO - 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.

The best way to find great value stocks is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Currently, DTE Energy has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Southern Co. has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). Investors should feel comfortable knowing that DTE likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than SO has recently. 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.

DTE currently has a forward P/E ratio of 17.82, while SO has a forward P/E of 19.89. We also note that DTE has a PEG ratio of 2.97. 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. SO currently has a PEG ratio of 4.97.

Another notable valuation metric for DTE is its P/B ratio of 2.14. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, SO has a P/B of 2.26.

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

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


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