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ICBK vs. BY: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

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Investors with an interest in Banks - Northeast stocks have likely encountered both County Bancorp and Byline Bancorp (BY - Free Report) . But which of these two stocks is more attractive to value investors? We'll need to take a closer look to find out.

The best way to find great value stocks is to pair a strong Zacks Rank with an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system. The Zacks Rank favors stocks with strong earnings estimate revision trends, and our Style Scores highlight companies with specific traits.

Currently, County Bancorp has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Byline Bancorp has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that ICBK is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. But this is just one factor that value investors are interested in.

Value investors analyze a variety of traditional, tried-and-true metrics to help find companies that they believe are undervalued at their current share price levels.

The Value category of the Style Scores system identifies undervalued companies by looking at a number of key metrics. These include the long-favored P/E ratio, P/S ratio, earnings yield, cash flow per share, and a variety of other fundamentals that help us determine a company's fair value.

ICBK currently has a forward P/E ratio of 8.50, while BY has a forward P/E of 11.17. We also note that ICBK has a PEG ratio of 1.06. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. BY currently has a PEG ratio of 1.12.

Another notable valuation metric for ICBK is its P/B ratio of 0.89. 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, BY has a P/B of 1.01.

These are just a few of the metrics contributing to ICBK's Value grade of A and BY's Value grade of C.

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


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