Critical Contrast: East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) versus Triumph Financial (NASDAQ:TFIN)

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

Volatility and Risk

Triumph Financial has a beta of 1.23, meaning that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, East West Bancorp has a beta of 1.45, meaning that its share price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Triumph Financial	11.33%	6.43%	0.94%
East West Bancorp	37.14%	20.86%	1.94%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Triumph Financial and East West Bancorp, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Triumph Financial	1	4	2	0	2.14
East West Bancorp	0	3	3	0	2.50

Triumph Financial presently has a consensus price target of $63.29, suggesting a potential downside of 2.68%. East West Bancorp has a consensus price target of $68.86, suggesting a potential upside of 28.75%. Given East West Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe East West Bancorp is more favorable than Triumph Financial.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Triumph Financial and East West Bancorp’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Triumph Financial	$503.31 million	3.01	$102.31 million	$2.01	32.35
East West Bancorp	$2.62 billion	2.89	$1.13 billion	$8.92	6.00

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

85.6% of Triumph Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.1% of East West Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 6.5% of Triumph Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% 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.

Summary

East West Bancorp beats Triumph Financial on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Triumph Financial

Triumph Financial Inc., a financial holding company, engages in the provision of payments, factoring, and banking services in the United States. It operates through four segments: Banking, Factoring, Payments, and Corporate. The company offers depository products, including checking, savings, money market and certificates of deposit; and loan products comprising commercial real estate loans, land loans, commercial construction and land development loans, residential real estate loans, commercial agriculture loans, and consumer loans, as well as general commercial and industrial loans, loans to purchase capital equipment, asset-based loans, and business loans for working capital and operational purposes. It also provides electronic banking services, debit cards, insurance brokerage services, mortgage warehouse facilities, and transportation factoring services, as well as payments services offered through TriumphPay platform, a payments network for the over-the-road trucking industry. The company was formerly known as Triumph Bancorp, Inc. and changed its name to Triumph Financial Inc. in December 2022. Triumph Financial Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

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. 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, trade finance, letters of credit, commercial business, affordable housing loans, asset-based lending, asset-backed finance, project finance, and equipment financing, as well as financing services to clients needing a financial bridge 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 incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Pasadena, California.