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LYG vs. BNS: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?

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Investors interested in stocks from the Banks - Foreign sector have probably already heard of Lloyds (LYG - Free Report) and Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS - 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.

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 puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Lloyds has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Bank of Nova Scotia has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Investors should feel comfortable knowing that LYG likely has seen a stronger improvement to its earnings outlook than BNS has recently. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

Value investors also try to analyze a wide range of traditional figures and metrics to help determine whether a company is undervalued at its 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.

LYG currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.72, while BNS has a forward P/E of 11.25. We also note that LYG has a PEG ratio of 0.28. 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. BNS currently has a PEG ratio of 1.05.

Another notable valuation metric for LYG is its P/B ratio of 0.70. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, BNS has a P/B of 1.70.

Based on these metrics and many more, LYG holds a Value grade of B, while BNS has a Value grade of D.

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


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Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) - free report >>

Bank of Nova Scotia (The) (BNS) - free report >>

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