EWBC vs. FITB, HBAN, WTFC, ZION, ASB, CFG, FNB, KEY, SNV, and WBS
Should you be buying East West Bancorp stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of East West Bancorp include Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), Huntington Bancshares (HBAN), Wintrust Financial (WTFC), Zions Bancorporation, N.A. (ZION), Associated Banc (ASB), Citizens Financial Group (CFG), F.N.B. (FNB), KeyCorp (KEY), Synovus Financial (SNV), and Webster Financial (WBS). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
East West Bancorp vs. Its Competitors
East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) and Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, media sentiment, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and dividends.
East West Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Fifth Third Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. East West Bancorp pays out 28.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fifth Third Bancorp pays out 49.7% 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. East West Bancorp has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years and Fifth Third Bancorp has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Fifth Third Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
In the previous week, Fifth Third Bancorp had 8 more articles in the media than East West Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Fifth Third Bancorp and 17 mentions for East West Bancorp. Fifth Third Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.08 beat East West Bancorp's score of 0.43 indicating that Fifth Third Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
89.5% of East West Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.8% of Fifth Third Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of East West Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Fifth Third Bancorp 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.
Fifth Third Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than East West Bancorp. East West Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fifth Third Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
East West Bancorp has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fifth Third Bancorp has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.
East West Bancorp currently has a consensus price target of $120.53, indicating a potential upside of 13.17%. Fifth Third Bancorp has a consensus price target of $49.47, indicating a potential upside of 11.40%. Given East West Bancorp's higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe East West Bancorp is more favorable than Fifth Third Bancorp.
East West Bancorp has a net margin of 26.06% compared to Fifth Third Bancorp's net margin of 17.97%. East West Bancorp's return on equity of 15.09% beat Fifth Third Bancorp's return on equity.
Summary
Fifth Third Bancorp beats East West Bancorp on 11 of the 20 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 EWBC 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.
East West Bancorp Competitors List
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This page (NASDAQ:EWBC) was last updated on 10/5/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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