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EWBC or BOH: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Banks - West stocks are likely familiar with East West Bancorp (EWBC - Free Report) and Bank of Hawaii (BOH - 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.

East West Bancorp and Bank of Hawaii are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that EWBC likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than BOH has recently. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

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.

EWBC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 9.54, while BOH has a forward P/E of 14.35. We also note that EWBC has a PEG ratio of 0.95. 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. BOH currently has a PEG ratio of 1.79.

Another notable valuation metric for EWBC is its P/B ratio of 1.89. 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, BOH has a P/B of 2.78.

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

EWBC stands above BOH thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that EWBC is the superior value option right now.


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