A Look Into Financial Services Sector Value Stocks

What are Value Stocks?

A value stock traditionally has a lower price when compared to stock prices of companies in the same industry. This indicates that the company may be undervalued, as investors are not expressing as much interest in such companies. The most commonly used way to check for value is with the price-to-earnings multiple, or P/E. A low P/E multiple is a good indication that the stock is undervalued.

The following stocks are considered to be notable value stocks in the financial services sector:

1. First Northwest Bancorp FNWB - P/E: 6.98
2. Encore Capital Gr ECPG - P/E: 7.1
3. Pathfinder Bancorp PBHC - P/E: 7.64
4. Ohio Valley Banc OVBC - P/E: 8.54
5. First Republic Bank FRC - P/E: 1.68

First Northwest Bancorp's earnings per share for Q4 sits at $0.66, whereas in Q3, they were at 0.47. Most recently, the company reported a dividend yield of 1.84%, which has ('', 'not changed') by 0.0% from last quarter's yield of 1.84%.

This quarter, Encore Capital Gr experienced a decrease in earnings per share, which was $1.22 in Q3 and is now $-3.11. Pathfinder Bancorp has reported Q4 earnings per share at $0.58, which has increased by 11.54% compared to Q3, which was 0.52. Most recently, the company reported a dividend yield of 2.08%, which has increased by 0.13% from last quarter's yield of 1.95%.

Most recently, Ohio Valley Banc reported earnings per share at $0.74, whereas in Q3 earnings per share sat at $0.77. Most recently, the company reported a dividend yield of 3.23%, which has increased by 0.02% from last quarter's yield of 3.21%.

First Republic Bank saw a decrease in earnings per share from 2.21 in Q3 to $1.88 now. Its most recent dividend yield is at 0.85%, which has increased by 0.05% from 0.8% in the previous 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.