CPRX vs. NBIX: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

Investors with an interest in Medical - Drugs stocks have likely encountered both Catalyst Pharmaceutical (CPRX) and Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX). 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 proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Catalyst Pharmaceutical and Neurocrine Biosciences are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This means that CPRX's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst 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.

CPRX currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.01, while NBIX has a forward P/E of 33.40. We also note that CPRX has a PEG ratio of 0.88. 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. NBIX currently has a PEG ratio of 1.30.

Another notable valuation metric for CPRX is its P/B ratio of 3.45. 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, NBIX has a P/B of 4.94.

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

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

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

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