A Look Into Financial Services Sector Value Stocks

What Defines a Value Stock?

A value stock is traditionally defined in terms of how investors in the marketplace are valuing that company's future growth prospects. Low P/E multiples are good base indicators that the company is undervalued and can most likely be labelled as a value stock.

Below is a list of notable value stocks in the financial services sector:

1. Salisbury Bancorp SAL - P/E: 9.28
2. Old Republic Intl ORI - P/E: 6.93
3. NiSun Intl Enterprise Dev NISN - P/E: 0.38
4. Bankwell Finl Gr BWFG - P/E: 6.74
5. Atlas ATCO - P/E: 7.98

Most recently, Salisbury Bancorp reported earnings per share at $0.66, whereas in Q1 earnings per share sat at $0.62. Most recently, the company reported a dividend yield of 2.76%, which has increased by 0.4% from last quarter's yield of 2.36%.

Old Republic Intl's earnings per share for Q2 sits at $0.69, whereas in Q1, they were at 0.63. Most recently, NiSun Intl Enterprise Dev reported earnings per share at $0.44, whereas in Q3 earnings per share sat at $0.46. Bankwell Finl Gr has reported Q2 earnings per share at $1.55, which has increased by 49.04% compared to Q1, which was 1.04. The company's most recent dividend yield sits at 2.51%, which has increased by 0.09% from 2.42% last quarter.

Most recently, Atlas reported earnings per share at $0.35, whereas in Q1 earnings per share sat at $0.39. The company's most recent dividend yield sits at 4.88%, which has increased by 1.15% from 3.73% last quarter.

The Significance: A value stock may need some time to rebound from its undervalued position. The risk of investing in a value stock is that this emergence may never materialize.