BSMX Or RY: Which Is The Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors looking for stocks in the Banks - Foreign sector might want to consider either Santander (MC:SAN) Mexico (BSMX) or Royal Bank (RY). 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.

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

Santander Mexico has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Royal Bank has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that BSMX is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is just one piece of the puzzle for value investors.

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.

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.

BSMX currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.10, while RY has a forward P/E of 11.06. We also note that BSMX has a PEG ratio of 0.90. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. RY currently has a PEG ratio of 1.98.

Another notable valuation metric for BSMX is its P/B ratio of 1.22. 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, RY has a P/B of 1.86.

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

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