I’m hunting for the best FTSE 100 value stocks to buy for my portfolio today. Here are two I think could be too cheap to miss.
The Berkeley Group
Share prices of major housebuilders are staging a rapid comeback. The Berkeley Group (LSE:BKG), for instance, has risen 12% in value since the start of the year.
Yet at current prices these businesses (largely speaking) still offer solid value for money. This London-focused builder, for example, trades on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 10.2 times. It’s a reading that sits below the UK blue-chip average of 14.5 times.
Berkeley shares also carry a forward-looking dividend yield of 5.6%. This comfortably beats the 3.7% average for FTSE 100 shares.
These low valuations reflect fears of a long downturn in the UK housing market. Weak economic growth and rising interest rates all pose a huge threat to homebuyer affordability.
However, the pace at which the housing market is improving suggests Berkeley and its peers’ shares could be positively re-rated in the weeks and months ahead.
This particular operator said that pricing “has remained firm and above business plan levels” in its latest trading update covering the four months to 28 February.
Latest Rightmove data released today shows that the market has continued to pick up momentum since then, too. Average home prices rose 1.8% between April and May to new record peaks of £372,894. This was also higher than the historical average May rise of 1%.
Encouragingly for Berkeley, price growth has been especially strong in its target markets of London and the South-East. Month-on-month increases of 2.8% and 2.3% respectively have been recorded this month.
For investors seeking solid all-round value I think the housebuilder is worth close attention.
Ashtead Group
Rental equipment business Ashtead Group (LSE:AHT) is a FTSE 100 share I already own. And I’m considering building my stake in the business before fourth-quarter financials come out on 13 June. I think more robust results could be forthcoming that push the share price higher.
Businesses like this are vulnerable as the US economy flirts with recession and construction spending moderates. But resilient trading in recent months suggest that the North-America-focused business could remain rock-solid during this tough period.
Ashtead revenues were up 23% in the three months to January as it continued to outperform the broader market, latest financials in March showed. In fact the firm hiked its full-year results to beat expectations on the back of the performance.
Ashtead’s resilience is thanks in large part to its aggressive expansion strategy to build market share. It is now the second biggest rental equipment supplier in the US. And encouragingly the company remains dedicated to rapidly improving its footprint (it made 38 bolt-on acquisitions in the nine months to January alone).
Today the business trades on a forward P/E ratio of just 9.7 times. Given its track record of delivering above-average returns — it was the FTSE 100’s best-performing stock of the 2010s — I think this makes it a steal.
