CIB or HON: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors interested in Diversified Operations stocks are likely familiar with Grupo Cibest (CIB) and Honeywell International Inc. (HON). 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 favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Grupo Cibest has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Honeywell International Inc. has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that CIB 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.

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.

CIB currently has a forward P/E ratio of 7.79, while HON has a forward P/E of 17.95. We also note that CIB has a PEG ratio of 0.86. 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. HON currently has a PEG ratio of 2.60.

Another notable valuation metric for CIB is its P/B ratio of 1.67. 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, HON has a P/B of 6.83.

These metrics, and several others, help CIB earn a Value grade of B, while HON has been given a Value grade of C.

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

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

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