Heritage Financial (HFWA) Competitors

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) and Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, risk and media sentiment.

Is HFWA or CATY more profitable?

Cathay General Bancorp has a net margin of 20.55% compared to Heritage Financial's net margin of 15.73%. Cathay General Bancorp's return on equity of 10.23% beat Heritage Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Heritage Financial	15.73%	7.12%	0.87%
Cathay General Bancorp	20.55%	10.23%	1.25%

Do analysts recommend HFWA or CATY?

Heritage Financial presently has a consensus target price of $27.67, suggesting a potential upside of 16.05%. Cathay General Bancorp has a consensus target price of $50.17, suggesting a potential upside of 9.85%. Given Heritage Financial's higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Heritage Financial is more favorable than Cathay General Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Heritage Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
Cathay General Bancorp	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in HFWA or CATY?

78.3% of Heritage Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.0% of Cathay General Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Heritage Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.9% of Cathay General Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk and volatility, HFWA or CATY?

Heritage Financial has a beta of 0.55, meaning that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cathay General Bancorp has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has better valuation & earnings, HFWA or CATY?

Cathay General Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Heritage Financial. Cathay General Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Heritage Financial, 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
Heritage Financial	$317.18M	2.56	$43.26M	$1.48	16.11
Cathay General Bancorp	$1.39B	2.30	$285.98M	$3.96	11.53

Does the media prefer HFWA or CATY?

In the previous week, Heritage Financial and Heritage Financial both had 4 articles in the media. Cathay General Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.25 beat Heritage Financial's score of 0.76 indicating that Cathay General Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Heritage Financial	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Cathay General Bancorp	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is HFWA or CATY a better dividend stock?

Heritage Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Cathay General Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Heritage Financial pays out 64.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cathay General Bancorp pays out 34.3% 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. Heritage Financial has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Heritage Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Cathay General Bancorp beats Heritage Financial on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.