PPC vs. HRL: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

Investors with an interest in Food - Meat Products stocks have likely encountered both Pilgrim's Pride (PPC) and Hormel Foods (HRL). 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.

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 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.

Pilgrim's Pride and Hormel Foods are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that PPC is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

PPC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 13.02, while HRL has a forward P/E of 24.42. We also note that PPC 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. HRL currently has a PEG ratio of 3.34.

Another notable valuation metric for PPC is its P/B ratio of 2.65. 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, HRL has a P/B of 3.34.

Based on these metrics and many more, PPC holds a Value grade of A, while HRL has a Value grade of C.

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

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.