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

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Investors interested in stocks from the Banks - Foreign sector have probably already heard of Barclays (BCS - Free Report) and National Australia Bank Ltd. (NABZY - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great 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.

Currently, Barclays has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while National Australia Bank Ltd. has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell). This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that BCS is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

Value investors are also interested in a number of tried-and-true valuation metrics that help show when 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.

BCS currently has a forward P/E ratio of 6.01, while NABZY has a forward P/E of 13.76. We also note that BCS has a PEG ratio of 0.15. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. NABZY currently has a PEG ratio of 0.57.

Another notable valuation metric for BCS is its P/B ratio of 0.44. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, NABZY has a P/B of 1.36.

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

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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