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BCH or IBN: 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 De Chile (BCH - 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.

Currently, Banco De Chile has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while ICICI Bank Limited has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that BCH has 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.

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.

BCH currently has a forward P/E ratio of 7.54, while IBN has a forward P/E of 20.40. We also note that BCH has a PEG ratio of 0.92. 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. IBN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.

Another notable valuation metric for BCH is its P/B ratio of 1.86. 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, IBN has a P/B of 2.93.

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

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


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