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DTE vs. NEE: 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 NextEra Energy (NEE - 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.

Everyone has their own methods for finding great value opportunities, but our model includes pairing an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system with a strong Zacks Rank. 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.

DTE Energy and NextEra Energy are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that DTE has an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

DTE currently has a forward P/E ratio of 19.02, while NEE has a forward P/E of 24.39. We also note that DTE has a PEG ratio of 2.34. 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. NEE currently has a PEG ratio of 3.

Another notable valuation metric for DTE is its P/B ratio of 2.37. 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, NEE has a P/B of 2.86.

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

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


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