Hope Bancorp (NASDAQ:HOPE) and City Bank (OTCMKTS:CTBK) Critical Comparison

City Bank (OTCMKTS:CTBK) and Hope Bancorp (NASDAQ:HOPE) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for City Bank and Hope Bancorp, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
City Bank	0	0	0	0	0.00
Hope Bancorp	0	3	1	0	2.25

Hope Bancorp has a consensus target price of $13.25, indicating a potential upside of 15.12%. Given Hope Bancorp’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Hope Bancorp is more favorable than City Bank.

Profitability

This table compares City Bank and Hope Bancorp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
City Bank	N/A	N/A	N/A
Hope Bancorp	4.89%	4.70%	0.58%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares City Bank and Hope Bancorp”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
City Bank	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Hope Bancorp	$1.00 billion	1.47	$99.63 million	$0.39	29.51

Hope Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than City Bank.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

84.0% of Hope Bancorp shares are owned by institutional investors. 37.5% of City Bank shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.2% of Hope Bancorp shares are owned 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

Hope Bancorp beats City Bank on 8 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About City Bank

As of April 17, 2010, City Bank was acquired by Whidbey Island Bank. City Bank offers commercial banking services. The company was incorporated in 1974 and is headquartered in Lynnwood, Washington.

About Hope Bancorp

Hope Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Bank of Hope that provides retail and commercial banking services for businesses and individuals in the United States. It accepts personal and business checking, money market, savings, time deposit, and individual retirement accounts. The company also offers loans comprising commercial and industrial loans to businesses for various purposes, such as working capital, purchasing inventory, debt refinancing, business acquisitions, international trade finance, other business-related financing, and loans syndication services; commercial real estate loans; residential mortgage loans; small business administration loans; and consumer loans, such as single-family mortgage, home equity, automobile, credit card, and personal loans. In addition, it provides internet banking and bill-pay, remote deposit capture, lock box, and ACH origination services; treasury management services; foreign currency exchange transactions; interest rate contracts and wealth management services; automated teller machine services; and engages in investment activities. Hope Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.