Eastern Bankshares (EBC) Competitors

Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) and Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, dividends, media sentiment and valuation.

Which has more volatility & risk, ABCB or EBC?

Ameris Bancorp has a beta of 0.96, meaning that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eastern Bankshares has a beta of 0.94, meaning that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of ABCB or EBC?

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 large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is ABCB or EBC a better dividend stock?

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 3.1%. 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.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, ABCB or EBC?

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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ameris Bancorp	$1.13B	4.39	$358.68M	$5.68	12.69
Eastern Bankshares	$617.60M	5.75	$119.56M	-$0.31	-54.19

Do analysts recommend ABCB or EBC?

Ameris Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $72.14, indicating a potential upside of 0.09%. Eastern Bankshares has a consensus price target of $20.00, indicating a potential upside of 19.05%. Given Eastern Bankshares' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Eastern Bankshares is more favorable than Ameris Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ameris Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.86
Eastern Bankshares	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Is ABCB or EBC more profitable?

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.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ameris Bancorp	21.46%	9.57%	1.32%
Eastern Bankshares	-6.49%	7.35%	1.05%

Does the media favor ABCB or EBC?

In the previous week, Ameris Bancorp had 10 more articles in the media than Eastern Bankshares. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for Ameris Bancorp and 4 mentions for Eastern Bankshares. Ameris Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.59 beat Eastern Bankshares' score of 1.46 indicating that Ameris Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Ameris Bancorp	13 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Eastern Bankshares	3 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Ameris Bancorp beats Eastern Bankshares on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.