5 Best Diversified Bank Stocks to Buy Now

In this article, we will be taking a look at the 5 best diversified bank stocks to buy now. To see more of these stocks, you can go directly to see the 10 Best Diversified Bank Stocks to Buy Now.

5. East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 38

East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) is the bank holding company for East West Bank. It is based in Pasadena, California.

Jared Shaw at Wells Fargo reiterated an Overweight rating on East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) shares on April 21.

The average price target placed on East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) by Wall Street analysts is $70, and the shares were trading at $51.69 on April 29. This gives the stock an upside potential of 35.42%.

East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) had 38 hedge funds long its stock in the fourth quarter. Their total stake value was $434 million.

Aristotle Capital Management, an independent/employee-owned investment management organization, mentioned East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) in its first-quarter 2022 investor letter. Here’s what the firm said:

“We purchased East West Bancorp in the third quarter of 2017; however, our history with the business stretches back further having twice previously invested. Companies we consider to be high-quality like East West tend to remain high quality, and we have long admired the business for its uniqueness among the otherwise homogenous U.S. banking industry. Its dominant market share built over generations in Asian communities – and difficult-to-replicate experience due to culture, geography and business practices – create distinct competitive advantages in our view. During our most recent holding period, the bank achieved sustained loan growth, a catalyst we identified, through its continued leadership position as the financial “bridge” for customers doing business in the U.S. and China. Moreover, East West also realized market share gains in its headquarters state of California. With these catalysts nearing completion, we decided to exit our investment to fund the purchase of Oshkosh. As always, we will continue to study East West and, in the future, may once again find an opportunity to be investors.”