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HSBC or NABZY: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors with an interest in Banks - Foreign stocks have likely encountered both HSBC (HSBC - Free Report) and National Australia Bank Ltd. (NABZY - 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 is a proven strategy that targets companies with positive earnings estimate revision trends, while our Style Scores work to grade companies based on specific traits.

HSBC has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while National Australia Bank Ltd. has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that HSBC likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than NABZY has recently. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

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.

HSBC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 5.32, while NABZY has a forward P/E of 11.23. We also note that HSBC has a PEG ratio of 0.31. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. NABZY currently has a PEG ratio of 1.55.

Another notable valuation metric for HSBC is its P/B ratio of 0.72. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, NABZY has a P/B of 1.41.

These metrics, and several others, help HSBC earn a Value grade of B, while NABZY has been given a Value grade of D.

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


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