EIX vs. PNW: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

Investors looking for stocks in the Utility - Electric Power sector might want to consider either Edison International (EIX) or Pinnacle West (PNW). 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 proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Edison International and Pinnacle West are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that EIX is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

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 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.

EIX currently has a forward P/E ratio of 9.12, while PNW has a forward P/E of 20.71. We also note that EIX has a PEG ratio of 1.30. 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. PNW currently has a PEG ratio of 9.77.

Another notable valuation metric for EIX is its P/B ratio of 1.23. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, PNW has a P/B of 1.63.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to EIX's Value grade of A and PNW's Value grade of C.

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

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

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