Investors interested in Banks - Southeast stocks are likely familiar with First Bancorp (FBP) and Synovus Financial (SNV). But which of these two stocks presents investors with the better value opportunity right now? Let's take a closer look.

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 Zacks Rank is a proven strategy that targets companies with positive earnings estimate revision trends, while our Style Scores work to grade companies based on specific traits.

First Bancorp and Synovus Financial are sporting Zacks Ranks of #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold), respectively, right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that FBP is likely seeing its earnings outlook improve to a greater extent. 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.

FBP currently has a forward P/E ratio of 10.39, while SNV has a forward P/E of 10.68. We also note that FBP has a PEG ratio of 0.28. 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. SNV currently has a PEG ratio of 0.52.

Another notable valuation metric for FBP is its P/B ratio of 1.34. The P/B is a method of comparing a stock's market value to its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. By comparison, SNV has a P/B of 1.49.

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

FBP stands above SNV thanks to its solid earnings outlook, and based on these valuation figures, we also feel that FBP is the superior value option right now.

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