Investors interested in stocks from the Utility - Water Supply sector have probably already heard of SJW (SJW) and American States Water (AWR). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's 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, SJW has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while American States Water has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell). The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that SJW has an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

Value investors analyze a variety of traditional, tried-and-true metrics to help find companies that they believe are undervalued at their 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.

SJW currently has a forward P/E ratio of 19.51, while AWR has a forward P/E of 27.59. We also note that SJW has a PEG ratio of 3.22. 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. AWR currently has a PEG ratio of 6.77.

Another notable valuation metric for SJW is its P/B ratio of 1.34. 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, AWR has a P/B of 3.54.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to SJW's Value grade of B and AWR's Value grade of F.

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

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