BSAC or NU: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

Investors with an interest in Banks - Foreign stocks have likely encountered both Banco Santander-Chile (BSAC) and Nu Holdings Ltd. (NU). 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.

We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Banco Santander-Chile has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Nu Holdings Ltd. 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 BSAC is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.

Value investors analyze a variety of traditional, tried-and-true metrics to help find companies 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.

BSAC currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.33, while NU has a forward P/E of 22.62. We also note that BSAC has a PEG ratio of 0.69. 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. NU currently has a PEG ratio of 0.70.

Another notable valuation metric for BSAC is its P/B ratio of 2.49. 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, NU has a P/B of 6.8.

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

BSAC is currently sporting an improving earnings outlook, which makes it stick out in our Zacks Rank model. And, based on the above valuation metrics, we feel that BSAC is likely the superior value option right now.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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