Emerging markets have been beaten up, but some investors think they offer advisors some attractive opportunities for their clients.

Michael Bennett, certified public accountant, managing director, Lazard Asset Management, said emerging markets are trading at 11 times forward earnings, which he said “is a very interesting opportunity” right now.

Conversely, he said valuations in some European companies and countries are getting close to fair value following the hit many southern-tier European countries took just a few years ago.

“What’s driven Europe this year? The second-best performer was Greece. ... In the fifth, sixth and seventh spot were Italy, Ireland and Portugal. Really, we’ve seen a huge turnaround in market perception toward Europe,” Bennett said.

He spoke Wednesday at the 2014 Envestnet Advisor Summit in Chicago on the next investment opportunities internationally.

Bennett said the philosophy toward investing at Lazard is to look closely at stock performance to remove the uncontrollable factors such as macroeconomic or political risk. And, after 2013’s banner performance for equities everywhere, “stock selection will be critical to determine winners and losers,” he said.

For example, he said, BMW is doing very well in China, despite the concerns about economic slowdown in the Asian nation. He noted that the carmaker saw a 25 percent rise in sales in China. By choosing a company like BMW, investors are focused on a company selling a product in China, rather than trying to guess where the Chinese economy is going.

Bennett said given the gains in Europe, Lazard will likely be reducing holdings because many of their stocks have reached fair value. That said, he mentioned the firm holds Assa Abloy, Lloyds and BAT in its European portfolio.

They are also underweight Japan as high taxes and labor challenges remain an issue. He said they are watching to see evidence that the structural changes proposed under Abenomics as Bennett remains skeptical of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s reforms. They do have some Japanese stocks in their holdings, including Japan Tobacco, KDDI and Daikin.

Kenneth Lowe, portfolio manager, Matthews International Capital Management, said Asian economies still have a long “runway for growth” for financial advisors seeking long-term investments.

Lowe said he likes to focus on domestic demand, saying they are looking at luxury goods, health care, leisure, education and information services sector in Asia, particularly in China. It’s important to focus on return on capital to see if the level of growth is sustainable, he added.

He said investors continue to look at gross domestic product growth to determine a region’s viability, but Lowe said long-term growth is best determined by investments, how much savings citizens have, a country’s demographics and potential for productivity gains. He said Asian citizens are good savers and productivity gains in Asia are the highest anywhere. Demographics, however, are mixed, with younger populations in southern regions like India, while northern Asian regions like Japan and South Korea have aging populations.

Rick Schmidt, portfolio manager, emerging market, frontier emerging markets at Harding Loevner, said investing in frontier markets, such as countries like Kuwait, is similar to what investors faced 20 years ago when investing in emerging markets began. “These markets don’t have the breadth or depth [of larger, more liquid markets] and there is restricted foreign direct investment, he explained.

But investing in frontier markets can offer portfolio diversification as the economic and political situations vary from country to country, unlike emerging markets which have tighter correlations. For instance, he said, Ukraine is performing poorly, but Bulgaria is doing well.

For financial advisors interested in frontier markets, Schmidt said picking a stock is just as important as picking a country. A particularly company may have a good balance sheet, but if something happens in the country where they are domiciled, such as a natural disaster or a political scandal, then the company’s stock may be unfairly impacted.