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SHG or EBKDY: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors looking for stocks in the Banks - Foreign sector might want to consider either Shinhan Financial (SHG - Free Report) or Erste Group Bank AG (EBKDY - 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.

Everyone has their own methods for finding great value opportunities, but our model includes pairing an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system with a strong Zacks Rank. The proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Shinhan Financial and Erste Group Bank AG are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that SHG has an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

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 Value category of the Style Scores system identifies undervalued companies by looking at a number of key metrics. These include the long-favored P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that help us determine a company's fair value.

SHG currently has a forward P/E ratio of 9.69, while EBKDY has a forward P/E of 11.91. We also note that SHG has a PEG ratio of 0.62. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. EBKDY currently has a PEG ratio of 0.69.

Another notable valuation metric for SHG is its P/B ratio of 0.9. 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, EBKDY has a P/B of 1.13.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to SHG's Value grade of A and EBKDY's Value grade of C.

SHG sticks out from EBKDY in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that SHG is the better option right now.

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