BancFirst (BANF) Competitors

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

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer BANF or EWBC?

East West Bancorp received 341 more outperform votes than BancFirst when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.71% of users gave East West Bancorp an outperform vote while only 53.01% of users gave BancFirst an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
BancFirst	Outperform Votes 220 53.01%	Underperform Votes 195 46.99%
East West Bancorp	Outperform Votes 561 64.71%	Underperform Votes 306 35.29%

Is BANF or EWBC a better dividend stock?

BancFirst pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. East West Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. BancFirst pays out 28.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. East West Bancorp pays out 28.8% 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. BancFirst has raised its dividend for 31 consecutive years.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, BANF or EWBC?

East West Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than BancFirst. East West Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BancFirst, 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
BancFirst	$631.45M	5.86	$216.35M	$6.44	17.30
East West Bancorp	$2.57B	4.90	$1.17B	$8.33	10.91

Which has more risk and volatility, BANF or EWBC?

BancFirst has a beta of 1.03, indicating that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, East West Bancorp has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend BANF or EWBC?

BancFirst presently has a consensus price target of $113.33, indicating a potential upside of 1.70%. East West Bancorp has a consensus price target of $111.31, indicating a potential upside of 22.49%. Given East West Bancorp's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe East West Bancorp is more favorable than BancFirst.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BancFirst	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.67
East West Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.77

Is BANF or EWBC more profitable?

East West Bancorp has a net margin of 25.73% compared to BancFirst's net margin of 23.52%. East West Bancorp's return on equity of 15.71% beat BancFirst's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BancFirst	23.52%	14.21%	1.68%
East West Bancorp	25.73%	15.71%	1.58%

Do institutionals and insiders believe in BANF or EWBC?

51.7% of BancFirst shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.5% of East West Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 33.9% of BancFirst shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of East West Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor BANF or EWBC?

In the previous week, East West Bancorp had 8 more articles in the media than BancFirst. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for East West Bancorp and 4 mentions for BancFirst. BancFirst's average media sentiment score of 1.28 beat East West Bancorp's score of 1.17 indicating that BancFirst is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
BancFirst	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
East West Bancorp	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

East West Bancorp beats BancFirst on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.