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PEBO or CIVB: Which Is the Better Value Stock Right Now?

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Investors with an interest in Banks - Midwest stocks have likely encountered both Peoples Bancorp (PEBO - Free Report) and Civista Bancshares (CIVB - 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.

Everyone has their own methods for finding great value opportunities, but our model includes pairing an impressive grade in the Value category of our Style Scores system with a strong Zacks Rank. The proven Zacks Rank puts an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions, while our Style Scores work to identify stocks with specific traits.

Peoples Bancorp has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), while Civista Bancshares has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. The Zacks Rank favors stocks that have recently seen positive revisions to their earnings estimates, so investors should rest assured that PEBO has an improving earnings outlook. But this is just one piece of the puzzle 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.

PEBO currently has a forward P/E ratio of 12.91, while CIVB has a forward P/E of 13.40. We also note that PEBO has a PEG ratio of 1.61. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. CIVB currently has a PEG ratio of 1.68.

Another notable valuation metric for PEBO is its P/B ratio of 1.33. Investors use the P/B ratio to look at a stock's market value versus its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, CIVB has a P/B of 1.41.

These metrics, and several others, help PEBO earn a Value grade of B, while CIVB has been given a Value grade of C.

PEBO has seen stronger estimate revision activity and sports more attractive valuation metrics than CIVB, so it seems like value investors will conclude that PEBO is the superior option right now.


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Peoples Bancorp Inc. (PEBO) - free report >>

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