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KB vs. RY: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors interested in Banks - Foreign stocks are likely familiar with KB Financial (KB - Free Report) and Royal Bank (RY - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

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.

Both KB Financial and Royal Bank have a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that both of these stocks have an improving earnings outlook since the Zacks Rank favors companies that have witnessed positive analyst estimate revisions. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

Value investors also tend to look at a number of traditional, tried-and-true figures to help them find stocks 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.

KB currently has a forward P/E ratio of 5.49, while RY has a forward P/E of 12.06. We also note that KB has a PEG ratio of 1.11. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. RY currently has a PEG ratio of 1.72.

Another notable valuation metric for KB is its P/B ratio of 0.47. 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, RY has a P/B of 1.69.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to KB's Value grade of B and RY's Value grade of F.

Both KB and RY are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that KB is the superior value option right now.


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