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DTI vs. BKR: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors with an interest in Oil and Gas - Field Services stocks have likely encountered both Drilling Tools International Corp. (DTI - Free Report) and Baker Hughes (BKR - 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.

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.

Drilling Tools International Corp. and Baker Hughes are sporting Zacks Ranks of #1 (Strong Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that DTI likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than BKR has recently. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

The Value category of the Style Scores system identifies undervalued companies by looking at a number of key metrics. These include the long-favored P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that help us determine a company's fair value.

DTI currently has a forward P/E ratio of 24.70, while BKR has a forward P/E of 25.27. We also note that DTI has a PEG ratio of 2.74. 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. BKR currently has a PEG ratio of 2.84.

Another notable valuation metric for DTI is its P/B ratio of 0.72. 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, BKR has a P/B of 3.14.

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

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

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