Investors looking for stocks in the Consumer Products - Staples sector might want to consider either Sony (SONY) or L'Oreal SA (LRLCY). 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 proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Sony has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while L'Oreal SA has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that SONY is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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.

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.

SONY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 20.52, while LRLCY has a forward P/E of 26.31. We also note that SONY has a PEG ratio of 3.37. 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. LRLCY currently has a PEG ratio of 3.71.

Another notable valuation metric for SONY is its P/B ratio of 2.70. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, LRLCY has a P/B of 5.55.

These metrics, and several others, help SONY earn a Value grade of B, while LRLCY has been given a Value grade of D.

SONY is currently sporting an improving earnings outlook, which makes it stick out in our Zacks Rank model. And, based on the above valuation metrics, we feel that SONY is likely the superior value option right now.

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

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