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PPG or NVZMY: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Chemical - Specialty stocks are likely familiar with PPG Industries (PPG - Free Report) and Novozymes A/S (NVZMY - 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 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.

PPG Industries has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Novozymes A/S has a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that PPG is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. 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.

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.

PPG currently has a forward P/E ratio of 18.50, while NVZMY has a forward P/E of 26.21. We also note that PPG has a PEG ratio of 1.11. 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. NVZMY currently has a PEG ratio of 14.89.

Another notable valuation metric for PPG is its P/B ratio of 4.20. 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, NVZMY has a P/B of 5.46.

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

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


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