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ICL or NGVT: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors with an interest in Chemical - Specialty stocks have likely encountered both Israel Chemicals (ICL - Free Report) and Ingevity Corporation (NGVT - 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.

The best way to find great value stocks is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Israel Chemicals and Ingevity Corporation 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 ICL has an improving earnings outlook. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

ICL currently has a forward P/E ratio of 12.28, while NGVT has a forward P/E of 16.75. We also note that ICL has a PEG ratio of 1.29. 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. NGVT currently has a PEG ratio of 1.67.

Another notable valuation metric for ICL is its P/B ratio of 1.66. 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, NGVT has a P/B of 8.51.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to ICL's Value grade of A and NGVT's Value grade of C.

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


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