The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that even though Canada's big banks have taken a pass on buying Laurentian Bank of Canada, investors need not follow suit. The Globe's David Berman writes that in a landscape where stock pickers can choose to invest in far larger lenders with more diversified operations across business lines and geographies, Laurentian is not a natural choice. It lags its rivals in a number of financial metrics, including profitability, and has the unfortunate distinction of cutting its dividend in 2020 by 40 per cent. However, there may be something here now that investors can approach Laurentian as a struggling bank again, rather than as a takeover target with a lofty takeover price embedded in its stock. This takeover premium, notes Mr. Berman, has now vanished, leaving a stock that looks cheap on a number of measures. The stock trades at just 6.7 times analysts' estimated earnings, compared with a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.2 in the case of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, another beaten-up bank stock. Laurentian trades at 0.6 times its book value, or assets minus liabilities. That is low compared with an average of 1.8-times book value for the Big Six banks.