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
Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) and East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment and dividends.
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.
Fifth Third Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $48.33, suggesting a potential upside of 6.09%. East West Bancorp has a consensus price target of $116.64, suggesting a potential upside of 6.64%. Given East West Bancorp's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe East West Bancorp is more favorable than Fifth Third Bancorp.
In the previous week, Fifth Third Bancorp had 3 more articles in the media than East West Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 45 mentions for Fifth Third Bancorp and 42 mentions for East West Bancorp. East West Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 0.97 beat Fifth Third Bancorp's score of 0.43 indicating that East West Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Fifth Third Bancorp has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, East West Bancorp has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.
83.8% of Fifth Third Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.5% of East West Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Fifth Third Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of East West Bancorp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers 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.
Fifth Third Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. East West Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Fifth Third Bancorp pays out 46.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. East West Bancorp pays out 28.0% 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. Fifth Third Bancorp has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years and East West Bancorp has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years. Fifth Third Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Summary
East West Bancorp beats Fifth Third 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 9/14/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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