Investors with an interest in Utility - Electric Power stocks have likely encountered both Exelon (EXC) and OGE Energy (OGE). 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 Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Right now, both Exelon and OGE Energy are sporting a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy). Investors should feel comfortable knowing that both of these stocks have an improving earnings outlook since the Zacks Rank favors companies that have witnessed positive analyst estimate revisions. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

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.

EXC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 16.78, while OGE has a forward P/E of 20.39. We also note that EXC has a PEG ratio of 2.94. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. OGE currently has a PEG ratio of 3.37.

Another notable valuation metric for EXC is its P/B ratio of 1.65. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, OGE has a P/B of 2.

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

Both EXC and OGE are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that EXC is the superior value option right now.

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

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