CVCY Vs. BOH: Which Stock Is The Better Value Option?

Investors looking for stocks in the Banks - West sector might want to consider either Central Valley Community Bancorp (CVCY) or Bank of Hawaii (BOH). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

We have found that the best way to discover great value opportunities is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with a great grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The proven Zacks Rank emphasizes companies with positive estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight stocks with specific traits.

Central Valley Community Bancorp has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), while Bank of Hawaii has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. This means that CVCY's earnings estimate revision activity has been more impressive, so investors should feel comfortable with its improving analyst outlook. But this is only part of the picture for value investors.

Value investors are also interested in a number of tried-and-true valuation metrics that help show when a company is undervalued at its current share price levels.

Our Value category highlights undervalued companies by looking at a variety of key metrics, including the popular P/E ratio, as well as the P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that have been used by value investors for years.

CVCY currently has a forward P/E ratio of 13.32, while BOH has a forward P/E of 14.83. We also note that CVCY has a PEG ratio of 1.66. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. BOH currently has a PEG ratio of 1.98.

Another notable valuation metric for CVCY is its P/B ratio of 1.26. The P/B ratio pits a stock's market value against its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, BOH has a P/B of 2.62.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to CVCY's Value grade of B and BOH's Value grade of C.

CVCY sticks out from BOH in both our Zacks Rank and Style Scores models, so value investors will likely feel that CVCY is the better option right now.