TGS or MPLX: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors with an interest in Oil and Gas - Production and Pipelines stocks have likely encountered both Transportadora De Gas Sa Ord B (TGS) and MPLX LP (MPLX). 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.

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 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.

Transportadora De Gas Sa Ord B and MPLX LP are sporting Zacks Ranks of #1 (Strong Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that TGS has an improving earnings outlook. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

Value investors are also interested in a number of tried-and-true valuation metrics that help show when 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.

TGS currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.74, while MPLX has a forward P/E of 12.56. We also note that TGS has a PEG ratio of 1.04. 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. MPLX currently has a PEG ratio of 5.09.

Another notable valuation metric for TGS is its P/B ratio of 1.79. 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, MPLX has a P/B of 3.86.

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

TGS stands above MPLX thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that TGS is the superior value option right now.

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

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