Yahoo Finance Should Value Investors Buy Banco Santander (SAN) Stock?
Here at Zacks, our focus is on the proven Zacks Rank system, which emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find great stocks. Nevertheless, we are always paying attention to the latest value, growth, and momentum trends to underscore strong picks.
Of these, value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.
Zacks has developed the innovative Style Scores system to highlight stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will be interested in stocks with great grades in the "Value" category. When paired with a high Zacks Rank, "A" grades in the Value category are among the strongest value stocks on the market today.
One stock to keep an eye on is Banco Santander (SAN). SAN is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) and an A for Value. The stock is trading with P/E ratio of 6.12 right now. For comparison, its industry sports an average P/E of 8.28. Over the past 52 weeks, SAN's Forward P/E has been as high as 7.89 and as low as 4.19, with a median of 5.21.
Investors should also recognize that SAN has a P/B ratio of 0.57. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. This stock's P/B looks attractive against its industry's average P/B of 1.57. Within the past 52 weeks, SAN's P/B has been as high as 0.60 and as low as 0.37, with a median of 0.46.
Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. Some people prefer this metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement. This means it could be a truer performance indicator. SAN has a P/S ratio of 1.03. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 1.51.
Finally, investors will want to recognize that SAN has a P/CF ratio of 4.42. This metric focuses on a firm's operating cash flow and is often used to find stocks that are undervalued based on the strength of their cash outlook. SAN's P/CF compares to its industry's average P/CF of 14.30. Within the past 12 months, SAN's P/CF has been as high as 5.67 and as low as 3.04, with a median of 3.80.
These are only a few of the key metrics included in Banco Santander's strong Value grade, but they help show that the stock is likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, SAN looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.
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Banco Santander, S.A. (SAN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
