Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:BSRR) versus East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) Financial Contrast

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

Analyst Ratings

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sierra Bancorp	0	2	0	0	2.00
East West Bancorp	0	1	12	0	2.92

Sierra Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $26.00, indicating a potential downside of 5.25%. East West Bancorp has a consensus price target of $92.77, indicating a potential upside of 9.00%. Given East West Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe East West Bancorp is more favorable than Sierra Bancorp.

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sierra Bancorp	$122.67 million	3.26	$34.84 million	$2.42	11.34
East West Bancorp	$2.54 billion	4.67	$1.16 billion	$7.94	10.72

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

Dividends

Sierra Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. East West Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $2.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Sierra Bancorp pays out 39.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. East West Bancorp pays out 27.7% 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.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

55.4% of Sierra Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.5% of East West Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 11.9% of Sierra Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of East West Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Sierra Bancorp has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, East West Bancorp has a beta of 1.29, suggesting that its share price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sierra Bancorp	17.77%	10.66%	0.97%
East West Bancorp	25.40%	16.64%	1.64%

Summary

East West Bancorp beats Sierra Bancorp on 13 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sierra Bancorp

Sierra Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Bank of the Sierra that provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals and businesses in California. It accepts various deposit products, such as checking accounts, savings accounts, money market demand accounts, time deposits, retirement accounts, and sweep accounts. The company's loan products include agricultural, commercial, consumer, real estate, construction, and mortgage loans. It also offers automated teller machines; electronic point-of-sale payment alternatives; online and automated telephone banking services; and remote deposit capture and automated payroll services for business customers. Sierra Bancorp was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Porterville, California.

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.