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MTH or DHI: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Building Products - Home Builders sector have probably already heard of Meritage Homes (MTH - Free Report) and D.R. Horton (DHI - Free Report) . 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.

Meritage Homes and D.R. Horton are both sporting a Zacks Rank of # 1 (Strong Buy) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that these stocks have improving earnings outlooks. But this is just one piece of the puzzle 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.

MTH currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.78, while DHI has a forward P/E of 12.34. We also note that MTH has a PEG ratio of 0.58. 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. DHI currently has a PEG ratio of 0.90.

Another notable valuation metric for MTH is its P/B ratio of 1.78. 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, DHI has a P/B of 2.31.

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

Both MTH and DHI are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that MTH is the superior value option right now.


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D.R. Horton, Inc. (DHI) - free report >>

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