OGN vs. HQY: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

Investors interested in Medical Services stocks are likely familiar with Organon (OGN) and HealthEquity (HQY). But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. 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.

Organon has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while HealthEquity has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that OGN likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than HQY has recently. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

Value investors also tend to look at a number of traditional, tried-and-true figures to help them find stocks that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

The Style Score Value grade factors in a variety of key fundamental metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a number of other key stats that are commonly used by value investors.

OGN currently has a forward P/E ratio of 2.38, while HQY has a forward P/E of 24.60. We also note that OGN has a PEG ratio of 0.90. 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. HQY currently has a PEG ratio of 1.18.

Another notable valuation metric for OGN is its P/B ratio of 3.23. 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, HQY has a P/B of 3.74.

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

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

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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