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NHYDY vs. ESAB: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Metal Products - Procurement and Fabrication sector have probably already heard of Norsk Hydro ASA (NHYDY - Free Report) and Esab (ESAB - 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.

We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Norsk Hydro ASA has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Esab has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that NHYDY likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than ESAB has recently. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

Value investors analyze a variety of traditional, tried-and-true metrics to help find companies 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.

NHYDY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 9.18, while ESAB has a forward P/E of 19.53. We also note that NHYDY has a PEG ratio of 0.17. 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. ESAB currently has a PEG ratio of 1.64.

Another notable valuation metric for NHYDY is its P/B ratio of 0.99. 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, ESAB has a P/B of 3.27.

Based on these metrics and many more, NHYDY holds a Value grade of A, while ESAB has a Value grade of D.

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


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