Critical Comparison: East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) and California First Leasing (OTCMKTS:CFNB)

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for East West Bancorp and California First Leasing, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
East West Bancorp	0	5	8	0	2.62
California First Leasing	0	0	0	0	0.00

East West Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $114.15, indicating a potential upside of 6.12%. Given East West Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe East West Bancorp is more favorable than California First Leasing.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares East West Bancorp and California First Leasing”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
East West Bancorp	$4.53 billion	3.27	$1.17 billion	$8.56	12.57
California First Leasing	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

East West Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than California First Leasing.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
East West Bancorp	26.06%	15.09%	1.56%
California First Leasing	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility & Risk

East West Bancorp has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, California First Leasing has a beta of 0.11, indicating that its share price is 89% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.5% of East West Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 6.5% of California First Leasing shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of East West Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 86.2% of California First Leasing shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

East West Bancorp beats California First Leasing on 9 of the 10 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 California First Leasing

California First Leasing Corporation provides loans and lease financing for universities, businesses, and other commercial or non-profit organizations. The company was formerly known as California First National Bancorp and changed its name to California First Leasing Corporation in February 2021. California First Leasing Corporation was founded in 1977 and is based in Newport Beach, California.