Investors looking for stocks in the Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - United States sector might want to consider either Range Resources (RRC) or Viper Energy Partners (VNOM). But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

The best way to find great value stocks is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Right now, Range Resources is sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Viper Energy Partners has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that RRC is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

Value investors also tend to look at a number of traditional, tried-and-true figures to help them find stocks that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

Our Value category grades stocks based on a number of key metrics, including the tried-and-true P/E ratio, the P/S ratio, earnings yield, and cash flow per share, as well as a variety of other fundamentals that value investors frequently use.

RRC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.77, while VNOM has a forward P/E of 20.63. We also note that RRC has a PEG ratio of 0.20. 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. VNOM currently has a PEG ratio of 3.

Another notable valuation metric for RRC is its P/B ratio of 1.98. 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, VNOM has a P/B of 1.99.

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

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

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

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