SR vs. ATO: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

Investors interested in Utility - Gas Distribution stocks are likely familiar with Spire (SR) and Atmos Energy (ATO). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's 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.

Both Spire and Atmos Energy have a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now. This means that both companies have witnessed positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that both of these stocks have an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

Value investors analyze a variety of traditional, tried-and-true metrics to help find companies that they believe are undervalued at their 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.

SR currently has a forward P/E ratio of 15.68, while ATO has a forward P/E of 20.80. We also note that SR has a PEG ratio of 1.49. 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. ATO currently has a PEG ratio of 2.61.

Another notable valuation metric for SR is its P/B ratio of 1.55. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, ATO has a P/B of 1.97.

Based on these metrics and many more, SR holds a Value grade of B, while ATO has a Value grade of D.

Both SR and ATO are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that SR 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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