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PRIM or DY: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Building Products - Heavy Construction stocks are likely familiar with Primoris Services (PRIM - Free Report) and Dycom Industries (DY - 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 proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Primoris Services has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Dycom Industries has a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that PRIM is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

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 grades stocks based on a number of key metrics, including the tried-and-true P/E ratio, the P/S ratio, earnings yield, and cash flow per share, as well as a variety of other fundamentals that value investors frequently use.

PRIM currently has a forward P/E ratio of 16.16, while DY has a forward P/E of 30.16. We also note that PRIM has a PEG ratio of 1.62. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. DY currently has a PEG ratio of 3.55.

Another notable valuation metric for PRIM is its P/B ratio of 2.24. 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, DY has a P/B of 3.39.

These metrics, and several others, help PRIM earn a Value grade of A, while DY has been given a Value grade of D.

PRIM sticks out from DY in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that PRIM is the better option right now.


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