DOLE or CTVA: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors interested in Agriculture - Operations stocks are likely familiar with Dole (DOLE) and Corteva, Inc. (CTVA). 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 Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Currently, Dole has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Corteva, Inc. has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). This means that DOLE'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 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.

The Style Score Value grade factors in a variety of key fundamental metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a number of other key stats that are commonly used by value investors.

DOLE currently has a forward P/E ratio of 9.81, while CTVA has a forward P/E of 22.53. We also note that DOLE has a PEG ratio of 1.44. 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. CTVA currently has a PEG ratio of 2.58.

Another notable valuation metric for DOLE is its P/B ratio of 0.91. 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, CTVA has a P/B of 2.2.

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

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

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

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