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The FTSE 100‘s a great place for global investors to hunt for cheap growth shares. Years of economic and political uncertainty means that many UK blue-chips have underperformed their overseas peers.
The Footsie has leapt in value recently, even hitting new record highs. But the fact remains that tons of top stocks still trade on rock-bottom earnings multiples that are tough to believe.
Here are two I believe value investors might consider too cheap to miss.
Fizzy sales
Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company‘s (LSE:CCH) a bargain share I’ve just added to my Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP).
It’s risen strongly in recent weeks, helped by another brilliant set of trading numbers that beat forecasts. The Coke, Sprite and Fanta bottler reported a 12.6% rise in organic revenues in the first quarter. That was well above a sub-10% predicted increase.
Yet today it still looks dirt cheap. Earnings are predicted to soar 27% year on year in 2024. This leaves Coca-Cola HBC shares trading on a forward price-to-earnings growth (PEG) ratio of 0.5. Any reading below 1 suggests a stock’s undervalued.
It’s not all plain sailing for the company. In fact, a steady slide in the euro poses a growing threat as eurozone interest rates reverse and political turbulence in the trading bloc increases.
The company reports in euros, exposing it to translation risk when profits from non-eurozone regions are converted into Europe’s single currency.
Yet on balance, I still believe the FTSE 100 company’s a top investment today. Developing and emerging markets sales continue to surge, up 12.5% and 19% in the first quarter respectively. This trend’s tipped to carry on as wealth levels in these regions rapidly rise.
CCH’s brilliant record of innovation also bodes well as it continues product launches across its markets. Monster Energy, one of its fastest-growing drink brands, introduced Green Zero Sugar in 16 more markets last quarter alone, for instance.
Bank on it
Banking giant HSBC Holdings (LSE:HSBA) also has an enormous emerging market footprint. In fact, it’s doubling down on these growth regions by selling Western assets and reallocating capital to Asian economic hotspots like Hong Kong, Singapore and Mainland China.
Okay, it’s a strategy that carries risk in the near term. The Chinese economy’s still struggling following the pandemic which, in turn, is causing ripples across the region.
However, it could be argued that the subsequent dangers to HSBC’s earnings are baked into its share price. The bank trades on a low price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 7.1 times.
City analysts certainly think HSBC’s earnings will continue to rise strongly despite China’s troubles. A 9% year-on-year increase is predicted for 2024.
This is perhaps no surprise. At the moment, the broader Asia Pacific economy’s tipped to continue expanding at a healthy pace (the IMF, for instance, predicts GDP growth of 4.5% this year). So demand for banking products is likely to continue growing from current low levels.
In fact, modest product penetration means HSBC can expect to strongly grow sales substantially over the next decade. I don’t think this is currently reflected in the company’s bargain-basement valuation.
