KYOCY Vs. LFUS: Which Stock Is The Better Value Option?

Investors looking for stocks in the Electronics - Miscellaneous Components sector might want to consider either Kyocera (KYOCY) or Littelfuse (LFUS). 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 favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Kyocera and Littelfuse are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), respectively, right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that KYOCY likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than LFUS has recently. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

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.

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.

KYOCY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 17.39, while LFUS has a forward P/E of 20.32. We also note that KYOCY has a PEG ratio of 1.35. 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. LFUS currently has a PEG ratio of 1.69.

Another notable valuation metric for KYOCY is its P/B ratio of 1.12. 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, LFUS has a P/B of 2.90.

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

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