Head-To-Head Contrast: Glacier Bancorp (NYSE:GBCI) and East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC)

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) and Glacier Bancorp (NYSE:GBCI) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

89.5% of East West Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.2% of Glacier Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of East West Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Glacier Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

East West Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $3.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Glacier Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. East West Bancorp pays out 30.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Glacier Bancorp pays out 54.1% 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. East West Bancorp has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares East West Bancorp and Glacier Bancorp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
East West Bancorp	$4.67 billion	3.84	$1.33 billion	$10.40	12.60
Glacier Bancorp	$1.44 billion	4.46	$239.03 million	$2.44	20.17

East West Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Glacier Bancorp. East West Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Glacier Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

East West Bancorp has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Glacier Bancorp has a beta of 0.74, suggesting that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for East West Bancorp and Glacier Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
East West Bancorp	0	5	10	0	2.67
Glacier Bancorp	1	3	4	0	2.38

East West Bancorp currently has a consensus target price of $140.23, indicating a potential upside of 7.05%. Glacier Bancorp has a consensus target price of $55.17, indicating a potential upside of 12.07%. Given Glacier Bancorp’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Glacier Bancorp is more favorable than East West Bancorp.

Profitability

This table compares East West Bancorp and Glacier Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
East West Bancorp	30.45%	16.07%	1.75%
Glacier Bancorp	19.72%	7.97%	1.05%

Summary

East West Bancorp beats Glacier Bancorp on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About East West Bancorp

East West Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for East West Bank that provides a range of personal and commercial banking services to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Consumer and Business Banking, Commercial Banking, and Other. It accepts various deposit products, such as personal and business checking and savings accounts, money market, and time deposits. The company’s loan products include mortgage and home equity, commercial and residential real estate, working capital lines of credit, construction finance, trade finance, letters of credit, commercial business, affordable housing loans, asset-based lending, asset-backed finance, project finance, loan syndication, and equipment financing, as well as financing services for clients to facilitate their business transactions between the United States and Asia. It also provides various wealth management, treasury management, foreign exchange, and interest rate and commodity risk hedging services; and mobile and online banking services. The company was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Pasadena, California.

About Glacier Bancorp

Glacier Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Glacier Bank that provides commercial banking services to individuals, small to medium-sized businesses, community organizations, and public entities in the United States. It offers non-interest bearing deposit and interest bearing deposit accounts, such as negotiable order of withdrawal and demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market deposit accounts, fixed rate certificates of deposit, negotiated-rate jumbo certificates, and individual retirement accounts. The company also provides construction and permanent loans on residential real estate; consumer land or lot acquisition loans; unimproved land and land development loans; and residential builder guidance lines comprising pre-sold and spec-home construction, and lot acquisition loans. In addition, it offers commercial real estate loans to purchase, construct, and finance commercial real estate properties; consumer loans secured by real estate, automobiles, or other assets; paycheck protection program loans; home equity loans consisting of junior lien mortgages, and first and junior lien lines of credit secured by owner-occupied 1-4 family residences; and agriculture loans. Further, the company provides mortgage origination and loan servicing services. It has 224 locations, including 188 branches and 36 loan or administration offices in 75 counties within 8 states comprising Montana, Idaho, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada. The company was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in Kalispell, Montana.