BCS vs. NABZY: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

Investors looking for stocks in the Banks - Foreign sector might want to consider either Barclays (BCS) or National Australia Bank Ltd. (NABZY). But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

Everyone has their own methods for finding great value opportunities, but our model includes pairing an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system with a strong Zacks Rank. The proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Barclays and National Australia Bank Ltd. are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This means that BCS'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 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.

BCS currently has a forward P/E ratio of 5.26, while NABZY has a forward P/E of 13.29. We also note that BCS has a PEG ratio of 0.13. 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. NABZY currently has a PEG ratio of 1.67.

Another notable valuation metric for BCS is its P/B ratio of 0.44. 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, NABZY has a P/B of 1.37.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to BCS's Value grade of B and NABZY's Value grade of D.

BCS has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than NABZY, so it seems like value investors will conclude that BCS is the superior option right now.


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