The United States and China have battled for supremacy as it relates to economic growth and expansion but the United Kingdom is also a nation that usually ranks among the most competitive economies.
One of the beauties of the stock market, especially here on U.S. stock exchanges is that we have the ability to invest in foreign stocks and economies.
To the point, the risk to reward looks favorable for a few top-rated U.K.-based stocks, and here are three to consider.
Balfour Beatty BAFYY: We’ll start with Balfour Beatty, which is an infrastructure company based in London. Balfour Beatty’s operating segments consist of construction services, support services, and infrastructure investments.
Notably, Balfour Beatty’s Zacks Building Products-Heavy Construction Industry is currently in the top 21% of over 250 Zacks industries. Correlating with such, over the last 60 days Balfour Beatty’s annual earnings estimates are up 3% for fiscal 2023 and 4% for FY24.
This makes Balfour Beatty stock more attractive coming off a strong 2022 that saw earnings at $1.16 per share. Despite the company’s EPS expected to dip to $0.90 a share this year, Balfour Beatty stock may be worthy of consideration as it trades at $8 and just 8.9X forward earnings.
Furthermore, the rising earnings estimates support the notion that Balfour Beatty stock is cheap trading at an attractive discount to its industry average of 14.4X forward earnings and the S&P 500’s 21X. It’s also noteworthy that Balfour Beatty offers a very respectable 3.96% semi-annual dividend yield to support investors with its stock down -2% this year but a move higher looking more likely.
Burberry Group BURBY: Next up is a well-known name, with Burberry Group ringing bells around the fashion industry on a global scale.
Also based in London, Burberry’s stock is intriguing with the luxury apparel designer expecting steady top and bottom line growth. Earnings are expected to rise 5% in Burberry’s current fiscal 2024 and jump another 13% in FY25 at $1.76 per share.
On the top line, sales are forecasted to be up 9% in FY24 and rise another 7% in FY25 to $4.49 billion. Making this expansion more compelling is that Burberry’s stock has a generous 3.91% semi-annual dividend yield and is now up a respectable +8% in 2023 at around $26 a share.
Tesco TSCDY: Lastly, Tesco’s stock may offer valuable exposure to the U.K.’s economy as the nation’s largest retailer and one of the world’s leading international retailers.
Like Burberry, Tesco is expecting solid top and bottom-line growth, and similar to Balfour Beatty its stock is notably undervalued at the moment. Tesco’s stock trades at $9 and 11.5X forward earnings which is a slight discount to the Zacks Retail-Supermarkets’ Industry average of 13.4X and nicely beneath the benchmark.
Even better, Tesco’s earnings are expected to rise 6% in its current FY24 and jump another 9% in FY25 to $0.92 per share. Tesco’s stock is up +10% this year and has returned +21% when including its stellar 5.58% semi-annual dividend yield (Total Return).
Conclusion
At the moment, these U.K.-based stocks look affordable and all land a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Offering exposure to one of Europe’s’ historically strong economies, these stocks also have an overall “A” VGM Zacks Style Scores grade for the combination of Value, Growth, and Momentum.
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