CODYY or JHX: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors looking for stocks in the Building Products - Miscellaneous sector might want to consider either Compagnie de Saint-Gobain - Unsponsored ADR (CODYY) or James Hardie (JHX). 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.

Compagnie de Saint-Gobain - Unsponsored ADR has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while James Hardie has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that CODYY likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than JHX has recently. But this is just one piece of the puzzle 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.

The Value category of the Style Scores system identifies undervalued companies by looking at a number of key metrics. These include the long-favored P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that help us determine a company's fair value.

CODYY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 15.35, while JHX has a forward P/E of 15.46. We also note that CODYY has a PEG ratio of 3.60. 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. JHX currently has a PEG ratio of 3.96.

Another notable valuation metric for CODYY is its P/B ratio of 2.08. 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, JHX has a P/B of 5.06.

These metrics, and several others, help CODYY earn a Value grade of B, while JHX has been given a Value grade of C.

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

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

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