HEINY or DEO: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors interested in stocks from the Beverages - Alcohol sector have probably already heard of Heineken NV (HEINY) and Diageo (DEO). But which of these two companies is the best option for those looking for undervalued stocks? Let's take a closer look.

Everyone has their own methods for finding great value opportunities, but our model includes pairing an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system with a strong Zacks Rank. The proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Heineken NV has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Diageo has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that HEINY likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than DEO has recently. But this is just one piece of the puzzle 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.

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.

HEINY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 14.21, while DEO has a forward P/E of 14.85. We also note that HEINY has a PEG ratio of 1.56. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. DEO currently has a PEG ratio of 12.91.

Another notable valuation metric for HEINY is its P/B ratio of 2.23. 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, DEO has a P/B of 4.02.

These metrics, and several others, help HEINY earn a Value grade of A, while DEO has been given a Value grade of C.

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

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

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