Contrasting OFG Bancorp (NYSE:OFG) & Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC)

OFG Bancorp (NYSE:OFG) and Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, dividends, earnings, valuation and institutional ownership.

Volatility & Risk

OFG Bancorp has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eastern Bankshares has a beta of 0.76, indicating that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares OFG Bancorp and Eastern Bankshares”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
OFG Bancorp	$902.28 million	2.00	$205.10 million	$4.58	9.26
Eastern Bankshares	$1.33 billion	3.65	$88.22 million	$0.41	50.44

OFG Bancorp has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Eastern Bankshares. OFG Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Eastern Bankshares, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for OFG Bancorp and Eastern Bankshares, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
OFG Bancorp	0	4	3	0	2.43
Eastern Bankshares	0	3	4	1	2.75

OFG Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $45.83, indicating a potential upside of 8.02%. Eastern Bankshares has a consensus target price of $22.75, indicating a potential upside of 10.01%. Given Eastern Bankshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Eastern Bankshares is more favorable than OFG Bancorp.

Dividends

OFG Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Eastern Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. OFG Bancorp pays out 30.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Eastern Bankshares pays out 126.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. OFG Bancorp has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years and Eastern Bankshares has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years. OFG Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.7% of OFG Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.7% of Eastern Bankshares shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of OFG Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Eastern Bankshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares OFG Bancorp and Eastern Bankshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
OFG Bancorp	22.72%	15.21%	1.69%
Eastern Bankshares	8.32%	8.25%	1.19%

Summary

Eastern Bankshares beats OFG Bancorp on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About OFG Bancorp

OFG Bancorp, a financial holding company, provides a range of banking and financial services. It operates through three segments: Banking, Wealth Management, and Treasury. The company offers checking and savings accounts, and individual retirement accounts; certificate of deposits, as well as time deposit products; commercial, consumer, auto leasing, and mortgage lending services; credit cards; cash management; financial planning and insurance services; and corporate and individual trust, and retirement services. In addition, it provides securities brokerage and investment advisory services, including various investment alternatives, such as tax-advantaged fixed income securities, mutual funds, stocks, and bonds to retail and institutional clients; and separately-managed accounts and mutual fund asset allocation programs. Further, the company engages in the insurance agency and reinsurance businesses; administration and servicing of retirement plans; and various treasury-related functions with an investment portfolio consisting of mortgage-backed securities, obligations of U.S. government sponsored agencies, and U.S. Treasury securities and money market instruments. Additionally, it offers money management and investment banking services; and engages in the asset/liability management activities, such as purchases and sales of investment securities, interest rate risk management, derivatives, and borrowings. The company provides investment brokerage, transactional, international trade financing, residential mortgage, and consumer finance services. OFG Bancorp was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

About Eastern Bankshares

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Eastern Bank that provides banking products and services primarily to retail, commercial, and small business customers. The company provides deposit accounts, interest checking accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, and time certificates of deposit accounts. It also offers commercial and industrial, commercial real estate and construction, small business, residential real estate, and home equity loans; lines of credit; and other consumer loans comprising unsecured personal lines of credit, overdraft protection, automobile loans, home improvement loans, airplane loans, and other personal loans. In addition, the company provides trust, financial planning and portfolio management, automated lock box collection, cash management, and account reconciliation services; personal, business, and employee benefits insurance products. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. was founded in 1818 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.