WD vs. CATY, NMRK, BKU, CBRE, CNS, CWK, FBIN, JLL, MMI, and STWD
Should you be buying Walker & Dunlop stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Walker & Dunlop include Cathay General Bancorp (CATY), Newmark Group (NMRK), BankUnited (BKU), CBRE Group (CBRE), Cohen & Steers (CNS), Cushman & Wakefield (CWK), Fortune Brands Innovations (FBIN), Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), Marcus & Millichap (MMI), and Starwood Property Trust (STWD).
Walker & Dunlop vs. Its Competitors
Walker & Dunlop (NYSE:WD) and Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, media sentiment, earnings, risk and valuation.
81.0% of Walker & Dunlop shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.0% of Cathay General Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of Walker & Dunlop shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.9% of Cathay General Bancorp shares are held 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.
Walker & Dunlop pays an annual dividend of $2.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Cathay General Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Walker & Dunlop pays out 82.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Cathay General Bancorp pays out 32.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Walker & Dunlop has raised its dividend for 7 consecutive years. Walker & Dunlop is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
In the previous week, Walker & Dunlop had 5 more articles in the media than Cathay General Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Walker & Dunlop and 7 mentions for Cathay General Bancorp. Cathay General Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.01 beat Walker & Dunlop's score of 0.89 indicating that Cathay General Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Walker & Dunlop currently has a consensus target price of $92.50, indicating a potential upside of 7.45%. Cathay General Bancorp has a consensus target price of $49.71, indicating a potential upside of 1.19%. Given Walker & Dunlop's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Walker & Dunlop is more favorable than Cathay General Bancorp.
Cathay General Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Walker & Dunlop. Cathay General Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Walker & Dunlop, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Walker & Dunlop has a beta of 1.59, indicating that its share price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cathay General Bancorp has a beta of 1, indicating that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.
Cathay General Bancorp has a net margin of 21.44% compared to Walker & Dunlop's net margin of 9.27%. Cathay General Bancorp's return on equity of 10.39% beat Walker & Dunlop's return on equity.
Summary
Walker & Dunlop beats Cathay General Bancorp on 11 of the 20 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 WD and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartMedia 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.
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This page (NYSE:WD) was last updated on 9/13/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff