PFS vs. BRKL, FFBC, NWBI, OCFC, PPBI, RNST, STBA, UBSI, WSFS, and FCF
Should you be buying Provident Financial Services stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Provident Financial Services include Brookline Bancorp (BRKL), First Financial Bancorp. (FFBC), Northwest Bancshares (NWBI), OceanFirst Financial (OCFC), Pacific Premier Bancorp (PPBI), Renasant (RNST), S&T Bancorp (STBA), United Bankshares (UBSI), WSFS Financial (WSFS), and First Commonwealth Financial (FCF). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Provident Financial Services vs. Its Competitors
Provident Financial Services (NYSE:PFS) and Brookline Bancorp (NASDAQ:BRKL) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation and profitability.
Provident Financial Services has a net margin of 16.97% compared to Brookline Bancorp's net margin of 12.12%. Provident Financial Services' return on equity of 8.80% beat Brookline Bancorp's return on equity.
Provident Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Brookline Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Provident Financial Services pays out 54.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Brookline Bancorp pays out 60.7% 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. Provident Financial Services is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Provident Financial Services has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brookline Bancorp has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Brookline Bancorp had 5 more articles in the media than Provident Financial Services. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Brookline Bancorp and 5 mentions for Provident Financial Services. Provident Financial Services' average media sentiment score of 1.04 beat Brookline Bancorp's score of 0.21 indicating that Provident Financial Services is being referred to more favorably in the media.
72.0% of Provident Financial Services shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.9% of Brookline Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.1% of Provident Financial Services shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Brookline Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Provident Financial Services presently has a consensus price target of $22.70, indicating a potential upside of 26.99%. Brookline Bancorp has a consensus price target of $15.25, indicating a potential upside of 51.29%. Given Brookline Bancorp's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Brookline Bancorp is more favorable than Provident Financial Services.
Provident Financial Services has higher revenue and earnings than Brookline Bancorp. Provident Financial Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Brookline Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Provident Financial Services beats Brookline Bancorp on 13 of the 18 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 PFS 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 NYSE 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.
Provident Financial Services Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:PFS) was last updated on 8/8/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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