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OGE or SO: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Utility - Electric Power stocks are likely familiar with OGE Energy (OGE - Free Report) and Southern Co. (SO - Free Report) . But which of these two companies is the best option for those looking for undervalued stocks? 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 favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Currently, OGE Energy has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Southern Co. has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). Investors should feel comfortable knowing that OGE 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.

OGE currently has a forward P/E ratio of 17.30, while SO has a forward P/E of 19.54. We also note that OGE has a PEG ratio of 4.74. 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 4.89.

Another notable valuation metric for OGE is its P/B ratio of 1.55. 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, SO has a P/B of 2.18.

Based on these metrics and many more, OGE holds a Value grade of B, while SO has a Value grade of D.

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


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