FFBC vs. WAFD, FRME, FMBI, TRMK, BANF, WBS, CBSH, WAL, CFR, and BPOP
Should you be buying First Financial Bancorp. stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of First Financial Bancorp. include WaFd (WAFD), First Merchants (FRME), First Midwest Bancorp (FMBI), Trustmark (TRMK), BancFirst (BANF), Webster Financial (WBS), Commerce Bancshares (CBSH), Western Alliance Bancorporation (WAL), Cullen/Frost Bankers (CFR), and Popular (BPOP). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) and WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, media sentiment, community ranking, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability and earnings.
First Financial Bancorp. currently has a consensus target price of $24.67, suggesting a potential upside of 10.81%. WaFd has a consensus target price of $33.25, suggesting a potential upside of 19.78%. Given WaFd's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe WaFd is more favorable than First Financial Bancorp..
77.2% of First Financial Bancorp. shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.7% of WaFd shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of First Financial Bancorp. shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of WaFd shares are owned 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.
First Financial Bancorp. has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WaFd has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.
First Financial Bancorp. received 58 more outperform votes than WaFd when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 49.31% of users gave WaFd an outperform vote while only 46.59% of users gave First Financial Bancorp. an outperform vote.
In the previous week, First Financial Bancorp. and First Financial Bancorp. both had 4 articles in the media. First Financial Bancorp.'s average media sentiment score of 1.07 beat WaFd's score of 0.94 indicating that First Financial Bancorp. is being referred to more favorably in the media.
First Financial Bancorp. has a net margin of 20.74% compared to WaFd's net margin of 15.33%. First Financial Bancorp.'s return on equity of 11.22% beat WaFd's return on equity.
First Financial Bancorp. pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. WaFd pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. First Financial Bancorp. pays out 37.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WaFd pays out 39.5% 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. First Financial Bancorp. is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
WaFd has lower revenue, but higher earnings than First Financial Bancorp.. First Financial Bancorp. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WaFd, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
WaFd beats First Financial Bancorp. on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding FFBC and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ 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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