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5 Valuable Price-to-Book Stocks to Strengthen Your Portfolio

  • May 29, 2025

It’s not an easy job to find value stocks. Being aware of a company's key financial numbers, like earnings per share and sales growth, can help investors identify stocks that are trading for less than their actual worth. However, a proper analysis of the fundamentals with the help of a number of metrics is required to determine whether a stock is a good bargain or not.

When narrowing down the list of undervalued stocks, price to earnings (P/E) and price to sales (P/S) are the first ratios that come to an investor’s mind. However, the price-to-book ratio (P/B ratio), though underrated, is also an easy-to-use valuation tool for identifying low-priced stocks with high-growth prospects.

The P/B ratio is calculated as below:

P/B ratio = market capitalization/book value of equity

The P/B ratio helps identify low-priced stocks with high growth prospects. Centene Corporation CNC, CVS Health CVS, Pfizer PFE, StoneCo STNE and Paysafe Limited PSFE are some such stocks.

Now, let us understand the concept of book value.

What is Book Value?

There are several ways by which book value can be defined. Book value is the total value that would be left over, according to the company’s balance sheet, if it goes bankrupt immediately. In other words, this is what shareholders would theoretically receive if a company liquidates all its assets after paying off all its liabilities.

It is calculated by subtracting total liabilities from the total assets of a company. In most cases, this equates to common stockholders’ equity on the balance sheet. However, depending on the company’s balance sheet, intangible assets should also be subtracted from the total assets to determine book value.

Understanding P/B Ratio

By comparing the book value of equity to its market price, we get an idea of whether a company is under- or overpriced. However, like P/E or P/S ratio, it is always better to compare P/B ratios within industries.

A P/B ratio of less than one means that the stock is trading at less than its book value or the stock is undervalued and, therefore, a good buy. Conversely, a stock with a ratio greater than one can be interpreted as being overvalued or relatively expensive.

For example, a stock with a P/B ratio of 2 means that we pay $2 for every $1 of book value. Thus, the higher the P/B, the more expensive the stock.

But there is a warning. A P/B ratio of less than one can also mean that the company is earning weak or even negative returns on its assets or that the assets are overstated. In such a case, the stock should be shunned because it may be destroying shareholder value. Conversely, the stock’s price may be significantly high — thereby pushing the P/B ratio to more than one — in the likely case that it has become a takeover target, a good enough reason to own the stock.

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