Investors interested in stocks from the Mining – Gold sector have probably already heard of Harmony Gold (HMY) and Franco-Nevada (FNV). But which of these two companies is the best option for those looking for undervalued stocks? 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 Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Harmony Gold and Franco-Nevada are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This means that HMY's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

HMY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 4.36, while FNV has a forward P/E of 37.93. We also note that HMY has a PEG ratio of 0.08. 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. FNV currently has a PEG ratio of 2.42.

Another notable valuation metric for HMY is its P/B ratio of 3.12. 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, FNV has a P/B of 5.38.

Based on these metrics and many more, HMY holds a Value grade of A, while FNV has a Value grade of F.

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

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Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (HMY) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Franco-Nevada Corporation (FNV) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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