Bank OZK (OZK): Among Cheap Rising Stocks to Buy Right Now
We recently published a list of the 10 Cheap Rising Stocks to Buy Right Now. In this article, we will look at where Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) stands against other cheap rising stocks in which to invest.
On May 2, US stocks notched their longest winning streak since 2004 as the United States and China signaled a willingness to have trade talks. The broad market index rose 1.47%, which helped it erase the losses since the Trump administration announced reciprocal tariffs on April 2.
READ ALSO: ChatGPT Stock Advice: Top 12 Stock Recommendations and 11 Worst Performing Stocks in S&P 500 So Far in 2025.
Trump told Time magazine on April 22 that his administration was engaged with China on striking a tariff deal. The US president also said he expects announcements on many other trade deals to be made over the next three to four weeks.
During an interview with NBC on May 2, the US President stated that tariffs on Chinese imports will eventually be lowered:
At some point, I'm going to lower them because otherwise, you could never do business with them. They want to do business very much … their economy is collapsing.'
Jay Hatfield, founder and chief investment officer of InfraCap, believes the worst of the uncertainty around tariffs is over. He shared the following remarks while talking to CNBC:
'The confusion about whether there's really talks going on with China or not took some steam out of the market. Our view is that we've reached peak tariff tantrum and so it's likely to be more positive than negative.'
A spokesperson for China's Commerce Ministry has said the country is currently assessing proposals shared by Washington to begin trade negotiations. Analysts view the statement as a subtle shift in tone from Beijing that could potentially open the door for talks on tariffs.
The stock market has also received a boost from the latest jobs data shared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The American economy added 177,000 new jobs in April. While this was slightly down from 185,000 jobs in March, the gain was still stronger than the average pace of monthly job growth in the last three months, which reflected the resilience of the US job market.
An iconic skyline of a major city, the towering buildings display the strength of the company's regional banking success.
For this article, we sifted through screeners to identify stocks with returns of 10% or more over the past 30 days, a forward P/E ratio of less than 15, a trailing P/E ratio of less than 15, and a P/B ratio of under 1. From there, we picked the 10 stocks with the lowest forward P/E ratio and ranked them in descending order. All data is as of the close of business on May 5, 2025.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
30-day returns: 15.56%
Forward P/E ratio: 7.48
Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) is a regional bank with operations in more than 240 offices across nine states. The company delivers various innovative financial solutions to clients, including savings, checking, loans, mortgages, treasury management, credit cards, merchant services, trust and estate services, and more.
During its recent earnings call on April 16, Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) reported a net income of $167.9 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2025, decreasing 2.1% compared to the prior year's period. Diluted earnings per share were posted at $1.47. While this was also down 2.6% year-over-year, the figure beat analysts' estimates by 5 cents, representing an earnings surprise of 3.52%.
Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK) has surpassed analysts' EPS consensus in the last four quarters. In Q4 2024, the company produced earnings of $1.56 per share, against forecasts of $1.45 per share. The stock has surged since the latest earnings call, enabling OZK to have monthly returns of over 15%, making it one of the cheap rising stocks to buy right now.
However, Stephens & Co., on April 21, cut Bank OZK (NASDAQ:OZK)'s price target from $59 to $54 per share, as the bank's guidance for fiscal 2025 largely remained unchanged. Overall, Wall Street analysts have a consensus Hold rating for the stock, with an average share price upside potential of 12.4%.
Overall, OZK ranks 9th among the cheap rising stocks to buy right now. While we acknowledge the potential of OZK as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than OZK but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
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