Reviewing East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) and First Republic Bank (OTCMKTS:FRCB)

First Republic Bank (OTCMKTS:FRCB) and East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for First Republic Bank and East West Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First Republic Bank	0	0	0	0	0.00
East West Bancorp	0	5	11	0	2.69

East West Bancorp has a consensus price target of $132.36, suggesting a potential upside of 5.18%. Given East West Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe East West Bancorp is more favorable than First Republic Bank.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares First Republic Bank and East West Bancorp”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
First Republic Bank	N/A	N/A	N/A	$1.23	0.00
East West Bancorp	$4.67 billion	3.69	$1.33 billion	$10.01	12.57

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.0% of First Republic Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.5% of East West Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of First Republic Bank shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of East West Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First Republic Bank	N/A	N/A	N/A
East West Bancorp	29.59%	16.00%	1.73%

Risk and Volatility

First Republic Bank has a beta of 3.29, meaning that its stock price is 229% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, East West Bancorp has a beta of 0.97, meaning that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

East West Bancorp beats First Republic Bank on 11 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About First Republic Bank

As of May 1, 2023, First Republic Bank went out of business. Previously, First Republic Bank provided private banking, private business banking, and private wealth management services to clients in metropolitan areas in the United States. The company was founded in 1985 and was headquartered in San Francisco, California. First Republic Bank now trades on OTCPK.

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.