EBC vs. ABCB, BANR, CATY, DCOM, FRME, OBK, OCFC, SBCF, SSB, and WSFS
Should you be buying Eastern Bankshares stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Eastern Bankshares include Ameris Bancorp (ABCB), Banner (BANR), Cathay General Bancorp (CATY), Dime Community Bancshares (DCOM), First Merchants (FRME), Origin Bancorp (OBK), OceanFirst Financial (OCFC), Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (SBCF), SouthState (SSB), and WSFS Financial (WSFS). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Eastern Bankshares vs. Its Competitors
Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) and Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.
Ameris Bancorp has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eastern Bankshares has a beta of 0.95, indicating that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.
91.6% of Ameris Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.7% of Eastern Bankshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.4% of Ameris Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Eastern Bankshares shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Ameris Bancorp had 5 more articles in the media than Eastern Bankshares. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Ameris Bancorp and 2 mentions for Eastern Bankshares. Ameris Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.52 beat Eastern Bankshares' score of 1.36 indicating that Ameris Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Ameris Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $72.14, suggesting a potential downside of 3.07%. Eastern Bankshares has a consensus target price of $20.00, suggesting a potential upside of 15.71%. Given Eastern Bankshares' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Eastern Bankshares is more favorable than Ameris Bancorp.
Ameris Bancorp has a net margin of 21.46% compared to Eastern Bankshares' net margin of -6.49%. Ameris Bancorp's return on equity of 9.57% beat Eastern Bankshares' return on equity.
Ameris Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Eastern Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Ameris Bancorp pays out 14.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Eastern Bankshares pays out -167.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Eastern Bankshares has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Eastern Bankshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Ameris Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Eastern Bankshares. Eastern Bankshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ameris Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Ameris Bancorp beats Eastern Bankshares on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding EBC and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Eastern Bankshares Competitors List
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This page (NASDAQ:EBC) was last updated on 9/12/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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