Investors with an interest in Mining – Miscellaneous stocks have likely encountered both Norsk Hydro ASA (NHYDY) and BHP (BHP). 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.

We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Norsk Hydro ASA has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while BHP has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that NHYDY has an improving earnings 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.

NHYDY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 9.44, while BHP has a forward P/E of 16.39. We also note that NHYDY has a PEG ratio of 0.74. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. BHP currently has a PEG ratio of 1.10.

Another notable valuation metric for NHYDY is its P/B ratio of 2.15. 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, BHP has a P/B of 3.75.

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

NHYDY sticks out from BHP in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that NHYDY is the better option right now.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

Norsk Hydro ASA (NHYDY) : Free Stock Analysis Report

BHP Group Limited Sponsored ADR (BHP) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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

Zacks Investment Research