WSFS vs. BANC, WAFD, NWBI, OCFC, DCOM, FULT, BANF, SFNC, CBU, and PRK
Should you be buying WSFS Financial stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of WSFS Financial include Banc of California (BANC), WaFd (WAFD), Northwest Bancshares (NWBI), OceanFirst Financial (OCFC), Dime Community Bancshares (DCOM), Fulton Financial (FULT), BancFirst (BANF), Simmons First National (SFNC), Community Bank System (CBU), and Park National (PRK). These companies are all part of the "national commercial banks" industry.
Banc of California (NYSE:BANC) and WSFS Financial (NASDAQ:WSFS) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, community ranking, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.
WSFS Financial has a net margin of 20.73% compared to WSFS Financial's net margin of -29.10%. Banc of California's return on equity of 11.94% beat WSFS Financial's return on equity.
Banc of California pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. WSFS Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Banc of California pays out -12.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WSFS Financial pays out 13.4% 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. Banc of California has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Banc of California is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
86.9% of Banc of California shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.5% of WSFS Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.8% of Banc of California shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of WSFS Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Banc of California currently has a consensus target price of $16.64, indicating a potential upside of 18.24%. WSFS Financial has a consensus target price of $43.67, indicating a potential upside of 1.29%. Given WSFS Financial's higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Banc of California is more favorable than WSFS Financial.
In the previous week, Banc of California had 19 more articles in the media than WSFS Financial. MarketBeat recorded 36 mentions for Banc of California and 17 mentions for WSFS Financial. Banc of California's average media sentiment score of 0.75 beat WSFS Financial's score of 0.24 indicating that WSFS Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Banc of California received 106 more outperform votes than WSFS Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.93% of users gave Banc of California an outperform vote while only 50.89% of users gave WSFS Financial an outperform vote.
WSFS Financial has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Banc of California. Banc of California is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WSFS Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Banc of California has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WSFS Financial has a beta of 1.03, indicating that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
WSFS Financial beats Banc of California on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding WSFS and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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