Critical Survey: Bank of East Asia (OTCMKTS:BKEAY) versus Commerzbank (OTCMKTS:CRZBY)

Commerzbank (OTCMKTS:CRZBY) and Bank of East Asia (OTCMKTS:BKEAY) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Commerzbank has a beta of 0.37, meaning that its stock price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bank of East Asia has a beta of 0.08, meaning that its stock price is 92% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Commerzbank and Bank of East Asia, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Commerzbank	0	5	2	1	2.50
Bank of East Asia	1	1	0	0	1.50

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Commerzbank and Bank of East Asia”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Commerzbank	$25.96 billion	1.61	$2.90 billion	$2.27	16.35
Bank of East Asia	$4.96 billion	0.92	$449.07 million	N/A	N/A

Commerzbank has higher revenue and earnings than Bank of East Asia.

Dividends

Commerzbank pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Bank of East Asia pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Commerzbank pays out 22.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Commerzbank and Bank of East Asia’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Commerzbank	11.03%	7.29%	0.45%
Bank of East Asia	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Commerzbank beats Bank of East Asia on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Commerzbank

Commerzbank AG provides banking and capital market products and services to private and small business customers, corporate, financial service providers, and institutional clients in Germany, rest of Europe, the Americas, Asia, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Private and Small-Business Customers, and Corporate Clients. The company offers saving, checking, business, and current accounts; term deposits; pension; credit and debit cards; payment solutions; overdraft services; various loans; and insurance products. It also provides trade securities; treasury management; corporate financing; real estate financing; financing advisory; merger and acquisition; foreign trade; trade financing; asset and risk management; and online banking, as well as wealth management services. Commerzbank AG was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

About Bank of East Asia

The Bank of East Asia, Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides various banking and related financial services. Its personal banking services include corporate, individual, savings, current, time deposit, and supreme accounts; and time deposits, foreign currency deposits, MAS services, and auto-payroll products, as well as safe deposit boxes and remittance services. The company also provides corporate banking services, such as SME loans and financing guarantee schemes; corporate and commercial financing products, including syndicated and construction loans, acquisition and structured financing, working capital financing, share financing and IPO-related loans, and commercial mortgages; trade finance services and expert trade solutions; factoring services; import and export trade finance; guarantee services; eTradeConnect that allows buyers and sellers to connect, transact, share information, and submit applications for financing through a single platform; cash management services; corporate wealth management products; foreign exchange and treasury products; and marine cargo, property, trade credit, employee compensation, life, savings, and endowment insurance plans. In addition, it offers private banking services comprising investment advisory services; investment solutions, such as unit trusts, linked deposits, currency trading and management, global equities and bonds investments, structured products, and options and derivatives; portfolio management services; securities and futures broking services; cyber banking, credit cards, and ATM; and various international services. The company operates outlets in Hong Kong, rest of Greater China, Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Bank of East Asia, Limited was incorporated in 1918 and is headquartered in Central, Hong Kong.