KMTUY vs. CAT: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

Investors looking for stocks in the Manufacturing - Construction and Mining sector might want to consider either Komatsu Ltd. (KMTUY) or Caterpillar (CAT). 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.

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 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.

Komatsu Ltd. has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Caterpillar has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that KMTUY likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than CAT has recently. 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 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.

KMTUY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 9.44, while CAT has a forward P/E of 15.27. We also note that KMTUY has a PEG ratio of 1.90. 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. CAT currently has a PEG ratio of 2.02.

Another notable valuation metric for KMTUY is its P/B ratio of 1.22. 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, CAT has a P/B of 7.14.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to KMTUY's Value grade of B and CAT's Value grade of C.

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

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

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