Investors with an interest in Building Products - Home Builders stocks have likely encountered both Persimmon Plc (PSMMY) and NVR (NVR). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? 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 emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Right now, Persimmon Plc is sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while NVR has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell). The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that PSMMY has an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

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.

PSMMY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 12.45, while NVR has a forward P/E of 18.22. We also note that PSMMY has a PEG ratio of 0.82. 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. NVR currently has a PEG ratio of 4.05.

Another notable valuation metric for PSMMY is its P/B ratio of 1.14. 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, NVR has a P/B of 5.58.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to PSMMY's Value grade of B and NVR's Value grade of C.

PSMMY has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than NVR, so it seems like value investors will conclude that PSMMY is the superior option right now.

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

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