Investors looking for stocks in the Banks - Foreign sector might want to consider either Bank of Montreal (BMO) or ICICI Bank Limited (IBN). 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 Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.
Bank of Montreal has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while ICICI Bank Limited has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that BMO likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than IBN has recently. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.
Value investors also try to analyze a wide range of traditional figures and metrics to help determine whether a company is undervalued at its 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.
BMO currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.92, while IBN has a forward P/E of 18.64. We also note that BMO has a PEG ratio of 0.96. 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. IBN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.41.
Another notable valuation metric for BMO is its P/B ratio of 1.16. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, IBN has a P/B of 2.99.
Based on these metrics and many more, BMO holds a Value grade of B, while IBN has a Value grade of F.
BMO 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 BMO is likely the superior value option right now.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
