The book value of a company is basically what’s left after you subtract their total liabilities from their total assets. Other more sophisticated formulas exist for arriving at the figure, but that’s the general, easiest-to-comprehend idea. Benjamin Graham wrote a lot about it in his classic investment books, Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor.
Wall Street lost interest in the concept years ago as the big cap tech and social media names began to take off and analysts took to thinking of book value as quaint — interesting but not useful for the chasing of hot growth stocks.
Right now, NVIDIA’s price-to-book ratio is 65, Meta Platforms price-to-book ratio is 59 and Microsoft’s price-to-book ratio is 34. The current mania for growth is unconcerned with old school notions of value.
Yet, there still exist stocks with price-to-book ratios of less than 1 — that is, they trade for less than their book value, as amazing as it may seem. Not only that, some pay dividends of 3% or more.
4 NYSE Stocks Below Book Value With 3% Dividends.
Avangrid (NYSE: AGR) owns and operates 8 electric and natural gas utilities serving more than 3.3 million customers in New York and New England. Headquartered in Orange, Connecticut, the company also owns and operates a portfolio of renewable energy facilities.
Market capitalization comes to $13.75 billion. The stock trades a 69% of its book value with a price-earnings ratio of 15.42. The debt-to-equity ratio is .66. This year’s earnings are up by 7.02% and up over the past 5 years by 1.11%. Avangrid pays a dividend of 4.95%.
Costamare (NYSE: CMRE) is a marine shipping company based in Monaco which owns and provides containerships transportation for charter. In business since 1975, the firm now owns a dry bulk fleet of 39 vessels and operates short, medium and long-haul routes around the world.
Earnings this year are up by 48.55%. Over the past 5 years, the EPS growth rate is 54.70%. The company’s market cap is $1.81 billion. With a price-earnings ratio of 5.86, the stock trades at a 20% discount from book value. Costamare pays a 3.03% dividend.
KT Corporation (NYSE: KT) is a South Korean-based telecommunications services company offering voice and text services as well as DIGICO, a digital platform which provides original content and logistics, among other types of services. KT has 17.155 million subscribers, making it the 3rd largest carrier in South Korea.
Market capitalization is $6.59 billion. This year’s earnings are up by 20.04% and up over the past 5 years by 3.60%. Now trading at 53% of its book value, the stock has a price-earnings ratio of 8.19. The debt-to-equity ratio is .67. KT Corporation offers investors a dividend of 5.30%.
Safe Bulkers (NYSE: SB) is involved in marine shipping from headquarters in Monaco. The company owns and operates 46 vessels and specializes in the running of dry bulk shipping. Coal, grain and iron ore are the products chiefly transported worldwide.
The stock trades at a 20% discount to book value with a price-earnings ratio of 8.31. The market cap is $599.99 million. Earnings this year are up by 58.79% and up over the past 5 years by 30.64%. The debt-to-equity ratio is .67. Safe Bulkers pays a dividend of 3.56%.
Stats courtesy of FinViz.com. Charts courtesy of Stockcharts.com.
No artificial intelligence was used in the composition of this writing.
More analysis and commentary at johnnavin.substack.com.
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