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LNC or BWIN: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Insurance - Life Insurance sector might want to consider either Lincoln National (LNC - Free Report) or The Baldwin Insurance Group (BWIN - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

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 proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Currently, Lincoln National has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while The Baldwin Insurance Group has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell). Investors should feel comfortable knowing that LNC likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than BWIN has recently. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

Value investors also try to analyze a wide range of traditional figures and metrics to help determine whether 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.

LNC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 5.33, while BWIN has a forward P/E of 16.82. We also note that LNC has a PEG ratio of 0.42. 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. BWIN currently has a PEG ratio of 0.91.

Another notable valuation metric for LNC is its P/B ratio of 0.84. 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, BWIN has a P/B of 2.93.

These metrics, and several others, help LNC earn a Value grade of B, while BWIN has been given a Value grade of D.

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


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