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ISNPY vs. IBN: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors with an interest in Banks - Foreign stocks have likely encountered both Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISNPY - Free Report) and ICICI Bank Limited (IBN - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

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 Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and ICICI Bank Limited have a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy) right now. This means that both companies have witnessed positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that both of these stocks have an improving earnings outlook. 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.

ISNPY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 7.43, while IBN has a forward P/E of 19.07. We also note that ISNPY has a PEG ratio of 1.16. 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. IBN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.70.

Another notable valuation metric for ISNPY is its P/B ratio of 0.91. 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, IBN has a P/B of 3.07.

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

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


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