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CB or THG: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Insurance - Property and Casualty sector might want to consider either Chubb (CB - Free Report) or Hanover Insurance Group (THG - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

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 Zacks Rank is a proven strategy that targets companies with positive earnings estimate revision trends, while our Style Scores work to grade companies based on specific traits.

Chubb has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Hanover Insurance Group has a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that CB is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

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.

CB currently has a forward P/E ratio of 11.92, while THG has a forward P/E of 155.39. We also note that CB has a PEG ratio of 1.19. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. THG currently has a PEG ratio of 4.22.

Another notable valuation metric for CB is its P/B ratio of 1.62. 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, THG has a P/B of 2.11.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to CB's Value grade of A and THG's Value grade of D.

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


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Chubb Limited (CB) - free report >>

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