Fulton Financial (FULT) Competitors

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) and East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, community ranking, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation and risk.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in FULT or EWBC?

72.0% of Fulton Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.5% of East West Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of Fulton Financial 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.

Is FULT or EWBC more profitable?

East West Bancorp has a net margin of 25.73% compared to Fulton Financial's net margin of 15.87%. East West Bancorp's return on equity of 15.71% beat Fulton Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fulton Financial	15.87%	11.41%	1.08%
East West Bancorp	25.73%	15.71%	1.58%

Do analysts prefer FULT or EWBC?

Fulton Financial presently has a consensus price target of $20.30, indicating a potential upside of 17.54%. East West Bancorp has a consensus price target of $107.85, indicating a potential upside of 18.94%. Given East West Bancorp's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe East West Bancorp is more favorable than Fulton Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fulton Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.17
East West Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.62

Does the media prefer FULT or EWBC?

In the previous week, East West Bancorp had 16 more articles in the media than Fulton Financial. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for East West Bancorp and 8 mentions for Fulton Financial. East West Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.22 beat Fulton Financial's score of 0.83 indicating that East West Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Fulton Financial	4 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
East West Bancorp	13 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk and volatility, FULT or EWBC?

Fulton Financial has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, East West Bancorp has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer FULT or EWBC?

East West Bancorp received 295 more outperform votes than Fulton Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.69% of users gave East West Bancorp an outperform vote while only 45.17% of users gave Fulton Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Fulton Financial	Outperform Votes 271 45.17%	Underperform Votes 329 54.83%
East West Bancorp	Outperform Votes 566 64.69%	Underperform Votes 309 35.31%

Is FULT or EWBC a better dividend stock?

Fulton Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. East West Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Fulton Financial pays out 42.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. East West Bancorp pays out 28.6% 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. Fulton Financial has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years and East West Bancorp has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, FULT or EWBC?

East West Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Fulton Financial. Fulton Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than East West 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
Fulton Financial	$1.23B	2.55	$288.74M	$1.70	10.16
East West Bancorp	$2.62B	4.77	$1.17B	$8.38	10.82

Summary

East West Bancorp beats Fulton Financial on 18 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.