FFBC vs. SSB, WBS, CBSH, PNFP, CFR, WTFC, WAL, UMBF, BPOP, and ZION
Should you be buying First Financial Bancorp. stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of First Financial Bancorp. include SouthState (SSB), Webster Financial (WBS), Commerce Bancshares (CBSH), Pinnacle Financial Partners (PNFP), Cullen/Frost Bankers (CFR), Wintrust Financial (WTFC), Western Alliance Bancorporation (WAL), UMB Financial (UMBF), Popular (BPOP), and Zions Bancorporation, National Association (ZION). These companies are all part of the "regional banks" industry.
First Financial Bancorp. vs. Its Competitors
SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) and First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, community ranking, institutional ownership, profitability, media sentiment, valuation, risk, dividends and analyst recommendations.
89.8% of SouthState shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.2% of First Financial Bancorp. shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of SouthState shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of First Financial Bancorp. shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
SouthState currently has a consensus target price of $116.27, indicating a potential upside of 36.67%. First Financial Bancorp. has a consensus target price of $29.25, indicating a potential upside of 25.27%. Given SouthState's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe SouthState is more favorable than First Financial Bancorp..
SouthState has a net margin of 22.38% compared to First Financial Bancorp.'s net margin of 18.67%. First Financial Bancorp.'s return on equity of 10.52% beat SouthState's return on equity.
SouthState received 236 more outperform votes than First Financial Bancorp. when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.01% of users gave SouthState an outperform vote while only 46.14% of users gave First Financial Bancorp. an outperform vote.
SouthState has higher revenue and earnings than First Financial Bancorp.. First Financial Bancorp. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SouthState, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
SouthState pays an annual dividend of $2.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. First Financial Bancorp. pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. SouthState pays out 34.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. First Financial Bancorp. pays out 39.8% 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. SouthState has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years and First Financial Bancorp. has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.
In the previous week, SouthState had 2 more articles in the media than First Financial Bancorp.. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for SouthState and 4 mentions for First Financial Bancorp.. SouthState's average media sentiment score of 1.69 beat First Financial Bancorp.'s score of 1.14 indicating that SouthState is being referred to more favorably in the media.
SouthState has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, First Financial Bancorp. has a beta of 0.97, meaning that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
SouthState beats First Financial Bancorp. on 18 of the 22 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 FFBC 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.
First Financial Bancorp. Competitors List
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This page (NASDAQ:FFBC) was last updated on 6/13/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
