EGO vs. IAG: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

Investors interested in Mining - Gold stocks are likely familiar with Eldorado Gold Corporation (EGO) and Iamgold (IAG). 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.

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 emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Both Eldorado Gold Corporation and Iamgold have a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong 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 only part of the picture for value investors.

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.

EGO currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.81, while IAG has a forward P/E of 11.45. We also note that EGO has a PEG ratio of 0.16. 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. IAG currently has a PEG ratio of 1.95.

Another notable valuation metric for EGO is its P/B ratio of 2.15. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, IAG has a P/B of 3.42.

Based on these metrics and many more, EGO holds a Value grade of B, while IAG has a Value grade of C.

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