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HMY or FNV: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors with an interest in Mining - Gold stocks have likely encountered both Harmony Gold (HMY - Free Report) and Franco-Nevada (FNV - 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.

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.

Currently, Harmony Gold has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Franco-Nevada has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that HMY is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

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.

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.

HMY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.04, while FNV has a forward P/E of 33.16. We also note that HMY has a PEG ratio of 0.35. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. FNV currently has a PEG ratio of 5.02.

Another notable valuation metric for HMY is its P/B ratio of 1.73. 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, FNV has a P/B of 2.98.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to HMY's Value grade of A and FNV's Value grade of F.

HMY stands above FNV thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that HMY is the superior value option right now.


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Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (HMY) - free report >>

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