First Financial Bancorp. (FFBC) Competitors

First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) and WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, institutional ownership, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, profitability and valuation.

Is FFBC or WAFD a better dividend stock?

First Financial Bancorp. pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. WaFd pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. First Financial Bancorp. pays out 37.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WaFd pays out 39.5% 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. First Financial Bancorp. is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has more risk & volatility, FFBC or WAFD?

First Financial Bancorp. has a beta of 1.04, indicating that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WaFd has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is FFBC or WAFD more profitable?

First Financial Bancorp. has a net margin of 20.74% compared to WaFd's net margin of 15.33%. First Financial Bancorp.'s return on equity of 11.22% beat WaFd's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First Financial Bancorp.	20.74%	11.22%	1.43%
WaFd	15.33%	10.02%	0.92%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in FFBC or WAFD?

First Financial Bancorp. received 58 more outperform votes than WaFd when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 49.31% of users gave WaFd an outperform vote while only 46.59% of users gave First Financial Bancorp. an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
First Financial Bancorp.	Outperform Votes 273 46.59%	Underperform Votes 313 53.41%
WaFd	Outperform Votes 215 49.31%	Underperform Votes 221 50.69%

Do analysts rate FFBC or WAFD?

First Financial Bancorp. currently has a consensus price target of $24.67, suggesting a potential upside of 10.61%. WaFd has a consensus price target of $33.25, suggesting a potential upside of 18.71%. Given WaFd's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe WaFd is more favorable than First Financial Bancorp..

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First Financial Bancorp.	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
WaFd	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Does the media favor FFBC or WAFD?

In the previous week, First Financial Bancorp. had 1 more articles in the media than WaFd. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for First Financial Bancorp. and 3 mentions for WaFd. First Financial Bancorp.'s average media sentiment score of 0.75 beat WaFd's score of 0.62 indicating that First Financial Bancorp. is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
First Financial Bancorp.	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
WaFd	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, FFBC or WAFD?

WaFd has higher revenue and earnings than First Financial Bancorp.. First Financial Bancorp. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WaFd, 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
First Financial Bancorp.	$820.58M	2.59	$255.86M	$2.48	8.99
WaFd	$1.10B	2.08	$257.43M	$2.63	10.65

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of FFBC or WAFD?

77.2% of First Financial Bancorp. shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.7% of WaFd shares are held by institutional investors. 2.0% of First Financial Bancorp. shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of WaFd shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

First Financial Bancorp. and WaFd tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.