UGP or MPLX: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors interested in Oil and Gas - Production and Pipelines stocks are likely familiar with Ultrapar Participacoes S.A. (UGP) and MPLX LP (MPLX). 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.

Ultrapar Participacoes S.A. has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while MPLX LP has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that UGP likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than MPLX has recently. 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 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.

UGP currently has a forward P/E ratio of 13.20, while MPLX has a forward P/E of 13.39. We also note that UGP has a PEG ratio of 1.70. 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. MPLX currently has a PEG ratio of 5.42.

Another notable valuation metric for UGP is its P/B ratio of 1.85. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, MPLX has a P/B of 4.13.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to UGP's Value grade of A and MPLX's Value grade of C.

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

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Ultrapar Participacoes S.A. (UGP): Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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