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SAN or NRDBY: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors with an interest in Banks - Foreign stocks have likely encountered both Banco Santander (SAN - Free Report) and Nordea Bank AB (NRDBY - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks offers value investors a better bang for their buck right now? We'll need to 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 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.

Banco Santander and Nordea Bank AB are both sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that both of these companies have improving earnings outlooks. 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.

The Style Score Value grade factors in a variety of key fundamental metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a number of other key stats that are commonly used by value investors.

SAN currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.24, while NRDBY has a forward P/E of 11.00. We also note that SAN has a PEG ratio of 0.69. 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. NRDBY currently has a PEG ratio of 3.26.

Another notable valuation metric for SAN is its P/B ratio of 1.33. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, NRDBY has a P/B of 1.74.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to SAN's Value grade of A and NRDBY's Value grade of F.

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

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