As respectable as 2024 has been for the FTSE 100 to date, a few of its members are having a a lot rougher time. In the present day, I’ll have a look at two worth shares that at the moment are buying and selling at 52-week lows and asking whether or not they’re just too low cost to disregard.

Falling revenue

It could have benefitted massively from the rise in gasoline and electrical energy costs over the previous few years however I believe it’s truthful to say that Centrica‘s (LSE: CNA) purple patch is effectively and actually over. The shares have dropped 13% in 2024 alone as market circumstances have, to cite administration, “normalised”. Whole adjusted working revenue was £1.04bn within the first six months of the yr. It was double that in the identical interval of 2023.

It’s necessary to place this fall in perspective. Whereas painful for newer holders, those that had the braveness to purchase originally of the pandemic will nonetheless be an exceptionally good return. One may argue that a variety of negativity is now baked in.

Low-cost FTSE 100 inventory

The £6.3bn cap trades at a forecast price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of simply six. At face worth, this seems to be dust low cost relative to each the utilities sector and the broader UK market.

Centrica’s funds additionally look far more healthy than they as soon as did. An enormous dollop of internet money on the stability sheet ought to permit it to proceed pivoting its enterprise in the direction of renewable vitality sources. And with gas costs set to rise subsequent month, maybe the following set of numbers could also be extra warmly acquired.

Nevertheless, this stays an extremely aggressive area the place buyer loyalty now not exists. On a purely anecdotal observe, I’ve simply moved to a different provider from Centrica’s British Gasoline and saved a packet within the course of.

Throw in low margins and a historical past of inconsistency in relation to dividends and I’m in no hurry to purchase right here.

Out of favour

One other FTSE 100 inventory that’s not too long ago set a recent 52-week low is mining behemoth Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO). Its shares have been tumbling in worth in 2024 (down 22% as I sort).

There are most likely just a few interconnected causes for this. Chief amongst them is definitely the slowdown of financial improvement in China — one of many world’s greatest importers of metals. Geopolitical tensions and excessive rates of interest haven’t helped issues.

Higher purchase?

Like its top-tier peer, this firm’s inventory now trades on a low P/E of simply eight. Not like Centrica, nonetheless, that’s truly very common inside its personal sector. There’s additionally an opportunity the shares will proceed falling within the occasion of less-than-impressive manufacturing updates, along with these issues already talked about.

All that mentioned, I’m not shopping for however I’d be extra inclined to purchase Rio Tinto if I had money to spare for 2 essential causes.

First, its dimension and pursuits in metals resembling copper and lithium means is prone to play a key position within the inexperienced vitality revolution. This transition will clearly take a long time. However that brings me to my second purpose.

It boasts a forecast dividend yield of seven.2%. Whereas no passive earnings stream could be assured, that is double what I’d get from a bog-standard FTSE 100 tracker and will result in an ideal consequence if reinvested and allowed to compound.