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BSBR or HDB: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors interested in Banks - Foreign stocks are likely familiar with Banco Santander-Brazil (BSBR - Free Report) and HDFC Bank (HDB - 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.

Banco Santander-Brazil and HDFC Bank are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that BSBR is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. 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.

BSBR currently has a forward P/E ratio of 7.26, while HDB has a forward P/E of 20.07. We also note that BSBR has a PEG ratio of 0.30. 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. HDB currently has a PEG ratio of 1.68.

Another notable valuation metric for BSBR is its P/B ratio of 0.81. 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, HDB has a P/B of 2.75.

Based on these metrics and many more, BSBR holds a Value grade of B, while HDB has a Value grade of C.

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


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HDFC Bank Limited (HDB) - free report >>

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