BANC vs. WAFD, WSFS, NWBI, OCFC, DCOM, PRK, FFBC, SFNC, FRME, and CBU
Should you be buying Banc of California stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Banc of California include WaFd (WAFD), WSFS Financial (WSFS), Northwest Bancshares (NWBI), OceanFirst Financial (OCFC), Dime Community Bancshares (DCOM), Park National (PRK), First Financial Bancorp. (FFBC), Simmons First National (SFNC), First Merchants (FRME), and Community Bank System (CBU). These companies are all part of the "national commercial banks" industry.
WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) and Banc of California (NYSE:BANC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, media sentiment, community ranking, risk, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations.
WaFd has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its share price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Banc of California has a beta of 1.17, meaning that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Banc of California had 8 more articles in the media than WaFd. MarketBeat recorded 31 mentions for Banc of California and 23 mentions for WaFd. Banc of California's average media sentiment score of 0.41 beat WaFd's score of -0.03 indicating that WaFd is being referred to more favorably in the media.
WaFd presently has a consensus target price of $33.25, indicating a potential upside of 14.77%. Banc of California has a consensus target price of $16.31, indicating a potential upside of 12.73%. Given Banc of California's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe WaFd is more favorable than Banc of California.
83.7% of WaFd shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.9% of Banc of California shares are held by institutional investors. 2.3% of WaFd shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Banc of California shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Banc of California received 94 more outperform votes than WaFd when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.86% of users gave Banc of California an outperform vote while only 49.31% of users gave WaFd an outperform vote.
WaFd has a net margin of 15.33% compared to WaFd's net margin of -29.10%. Banc of California's return on equity of 10.02% beat WaFd's return on equity.
WaFd has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Banc of California. Banc of California is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WaFd, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
WaFd pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Banc of California pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. WaFd pays out 39.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Banc of California pays out -12.0% 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. WaFd has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years and Banc of California has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. WaFd is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Summary
WaFd beats Banc of California on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding BANC and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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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