Been diving into value investing lately and noticed something interesting about how to identify stocks that actually have both growth and value characteristics. Most people focus on just one or the other, but there's this metric that bridges the gap pretty well.

The PEG ratio has been around for ages—Benjamin Graham used it back in the day, and Warren Buffett picked up on it too. Basically it's your P/E ratio divided by the growth rate. When you find stocks trading under 1.0 on this metric, you're looking at companies where the valuation actually makes sense relative to their expansion trajectory.

I ran through some screens recently and found a few names worth keeping an eye on. First up is Skillsoft (SKIL), this AI-native platform company focused on workforce capability management. It's a small cap play at around $133 million market cap, which is rare in the AI space right now. Sure, the stock got hammered down 36% at one point, but earnings are expected to jump 48% in the next fiscal year. Trading at a forward P/E of just 4.4 with a PEG ratio under 1.0—that's genuinely cheap territory.

Then there's Pinterest (PINS). A lot of people sleep on this one because the social media narrative gets tired, but the numbers are pretty solid. Monthly active users hit 578 million, and AI has actually moved the revenue needle. The market cap sits at $21.7 billion, so it's not some obscure micro-cap. Earnings growth is forecast at 33% this year and another 22% next year. With a PEG ratio of just 0.5 and a P/E of 18.4, it's trading at a discount to its growth rate. That's exactly what you want when hunting for best PEG ratio stocks.

Micron (MU) is the third one I'd flag. Memory and storage company that absolutely crushed it thanks to the AI data center boom. Fiscal 2025 earnings jumped over 500%, with revenue hitting a record $37.4 billion. And it's not slowing down—earnings expected to double again next year. Despite a 128% run already, it's still trading at a forward P/E under 12 with a PEG ratio of 0.4. That's the kind of valuation that makes sense even after a strong move.

The broader point here is that using the best PEG ratio stocks as your screening starting point actually works. You're not choosing between value and growth—you're finding the overlap where both exist. That's where the real opportunities tend to hide.