We recently published a list of the 10 Cheap Rising Stocks to Buy Right Now. In this article, we will look at where OptimumBank Holdings, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:OPHC) 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.
A view of a busy banking hall, customers engaging with banking staff to conduct their financial transactions.
Our Methodology
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).
OptimumBank Holdings, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:OPHC)
30-day returns: 16.54%
Forward P/E ratio: 6.11
OptimumBank Holdings, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:OPHC) is a bank holding company for OptimumBank, providing various commercial banking services to individuals and businesses.
The company held its annual shareholder meeting on April 29, in which it highlighted record-breaking financial results in 2024, which marked the strongest performance in the bank’s history. The management also shared a bold outlook for fiscal 2025 and laid out a strategic roadmap toward achieving $1 billion in assets.
OptimumBank Holdings, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:OPHC)’s total assets grew 18% in 2024 to $933 million, whereas equity increased 47% to $103 million. Net earnings for the year were posted at $13.1 million. Loans surpassed $800 million. Net interest margin stood at 3.83%, reaching a 10-year high. Core ROAE exceeded 23%.
Earlier in the year, in February, OptimumBank Holdings, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:OPHC) achieved Small Business Administration (SBA) preferred lender status, which will help in streamlining the SBA loan approval process for the Bank, allowing it to better service small businesses.
OptimumBank Holdings, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:OPHC)’s shares have gained nearly 17% over the past month. Given its low forward P/E ratio, it is among the cheap rising stocks to buy right now.
Overall, OPHC ranks 3rd among the 10 Cheap Rising Stocks to Buy Right Now. While we acknowledge the potential of OPHC 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 OPHC 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.
