The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that CIBC analyst Rob Sedran says bank shares are not as pricey as they look. The Globe's Tim Kiladze writes in the Streetwise column that Mr. Sedran compared current bank valuations with historical trends, as well as with other sectors. The Big Six banks trade at an average of 12.2 times Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's fiscal 2014 earnings expectations. If you compare the Canadian bank shares' runs to that of the S&P/TSX composite index as well as the S&P 500 U.S. Regional Bank index, as Mr. Sedran did, the soaring values do not look so dramatic. Both of those indexes are also on fire. Still, Mr. Sedran says, "Over the last year, EPS growth has been better than forecast, but the stocks have outpaced that growth again, delivering a 27 per cent average simple return." However, based on history, "it would appear that while the Canadian banks have seen a runup in share prices and valuations, these levels are far from out of the ordinary. We think investors should focus on operating conditions, which remain benign to favourable, and less on absolute valuations (though even those are not that problematic at this point)."