Essent Group (ESNT) Competitors

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) and East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends, risk, valuation and media sentiment.

Do analysts recommend ESNT or EWBC?

Essent Group currently has a consensus target price of $63.67, suggesting a potential downside of 0.37%. East West Bancorp has a consensus target price of $114.15, suggesting a potential upside of 8.51%. Given East West Bancorp's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe East West Bancorp is more favorable than Essent Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Essent Group	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
East West Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.62

Is ESNT or EWBC more profitable?

Essent Group has a net margin of 56.36% compared to East West Bancorp's net margin of 26.06%. East West Bancorp's return on equity of 15.09% beat Essent Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Essent Group	56.36%	12.66%	9.98%
East West Bancorp	26.06%	15.09%	1.56%

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of ESNT or EWBC?

93.0% of Essent Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.5% of East West Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Essent Group 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 endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is ESNT or EWBC a better dividend stock?

Essent Group pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. East West Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Essent Group pays out 18.1% 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. Essent Group has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years and East West Bancorp has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years. East West Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, ESNT or EWBC?

East West Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Essent Group. Essent Group 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
Essent Group	$1.24B	5.07	$729.40M	$6.85	9.33
East West Bancorp	$4.53B	3.20	$1.17B	$8.56	12.29

Does the media refer more to ESNT or EWBC?

In the previous week, East West Bancorp had 7 more articles in the media than Essent Group. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for East West Bancorp and 13 mentions for Essent Group. East West Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.29 beat Essent Group's score of 1.10 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
Essent Group	10 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
East West Bancorp	8 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk and volatility, ESNT or EWBC?

Essent Group has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, East West Bancorp has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

East West Bancorp beats Essent Group on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.