Investors looking for stocks in the Mining - Gold sector might want to consider either Barrick Gold (GOLD) or Alamos Gold (AGI). 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.

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.

Barrick Gold has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Alamos Gold has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This means that GOLD's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. 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 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.

GOLD currently has a forward P/E ratio of 11.39, while AGI has a forward P/E of 21.74. We also note that GOLD has a PEG ratio of 0.34. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. AGI currently has a PEG ratio of 0.63.

Another notable valuation metric for GOLD is its P/B ratio of 0.98. 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, AGI has a P/B of 3.30.

Based on these metrics and many more, GOLD holds a Value grade of A, while AGI has a Value grade of C.

GOLD stands above AGI thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that GOLD is the superior value option right now.

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Barrick Gold Corporation (GOLD) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Alamos Gold Inc. (AGI) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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

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