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POR vs. IDA: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors interested in Utility - Electric Power stocks are likely familiar with PGE (POR - Free Report) and IdaCorp (IDA - 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.

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.

PGE has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while IdaCorp has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that POR likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than IDA 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.

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.

POR currently has a forward P/E ratio of 19.39, while IDA has a forward P/E of 22.23. We also note that POR has a PEG ratio of 6.96. 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. IDA currently has a PEG ratio of 8.27.

Another notable valuation metric for POR is its P/B ratio of 1.62. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, IDA has a P/B of 2.08.

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

POR is currently sporting an improving earnings outlook, which makes it stick out in our Zacks Rank model. And, based on the above valuation metrics, we feel that POR is likely the superior value option right now.


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