Our research encompasses hundreds of community banks in our search for select institutions that are materially mispriced by the market relative to their potential. In general, our research classifies community banks into one of five groups:
- top tier institutions with a unique combination of strong operating potential and discounted market valuation which makes them particularly attractive investment opportunities whether they remain independent institutions or become acquisition candidates;
- upper tier institutions which have some unique characteristics but don’t fall into our top tier for some specific reason, often but not always due to valuation;
- middle tier