Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) vs. Park National (NYSE:PRK) Head-To-Head Contrast

Park National (NYSE:PRK) and Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

62.7% of Park National shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.7% of Eastern Bankshares shares are held by institutional investors. 2.2% of Park National shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Eastern Bankshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Park National has a beta of 0.72, meaning that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eastern Bankshares has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Park National and Eastern Bankshares, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Park National	0	5	0	0	2.00
Eastern Bankshares	0	3	6	0	2.67

Park National presently has a consensus price target of $200.50, indicating a potential upside of 13.60%. Eastern Bankshares has a consensus price target of $24.86, indicating a potential upside of 18.20%. Given Eastern Bankshares’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Eastern Bankshares is more favorable than Park National.

Dividends

Park National pays an annual dividend of $4.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Eastern Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Park National pays out 39.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Eastern Bankshares pays out 34.1% 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. Park National has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years and Eastern Bankshares has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Eastern Bankshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Park National and Eastern Bankshares’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Park National	23.46%	12.31%	1.50%
Eastern Bankshares	25.12%	8.71%	1.24%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Park National and Eastern Bankshares”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Park National	$623.80 million	5.11	$151.42 million	$11.17	15.80
Eastern Bankshares	$1.33 billion	3.62	$88.22 million	$1.76	11.95

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

Summary

Park National beats Eastern Bankshares on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Park National

Park National Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Park National Bank that provides commercial banking and trust services in small and medium population areas. The company offers deposits for demand, savings, and time accounts; trust and wealth management services; cash management services; safe deposit operations; electronic funds transfers; Internet and mobile banking solutions with bill pay service; credit cards; and various additional banking-related services. It also provides commercial loans, including financing for industrial and commercial properties, financing for equipment, inventory and accounts receivable, acquisition financing, and commercial leasing, as well as for consumer finance companies; commercial real estate loans comprising mortgage loans to developers and owners of commercial real estate; originates financing leases primarily for the purchase of commercial vehicles, operating/manufacturing equipment, and municipal vehicles/equipment; consumer loans, such as automobile loans; consumer finance services; home equity lines of credit; and residential real estate and construction loans, as well as installment loans and commercial loans. In addition, the company offers aircraft financing services; and ParkDirect, a personal banking application. Park National Corporation was founded in 1908 and is headquartered in Newark, Ohio.

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.