Comparing BOK Financial (NASDAQ:BOKF) & WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD)

BOK Financial (NASDAQ:BOKF) and WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership and risk.

Volatility and Risk

BOK Financial has a beta of 1.19, meaning that its share price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WaFd has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

34.4% of BOK Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.7% of WaFd shares are owned by institutional investors. 56.9% of BOK Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of WaFd shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for BOK Financial and WaFd, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BOK Financial	0	8	2	0	2.20
WaFd	0	2	2	0	2.50

BOK Financial presently has a consensus target price of $108.00, indicating a potential upside of 12.38%. WaFd has a consensus target price of $34.25, indicating a potential upside of 4.52%. Given BOK Financial’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe BOK Financial is more favorable than WaFd.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares BOK Financial and WaFd’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BOK Financial	$1.92 billion	3.22	$530.75 million	$6.86	14.01
WaFd	$711.02 million	3.75	$257.43 million	$2.63	12.46

BOK Financial has higher revenue and earnings than WaFd. WaFd is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BOK Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

BOK Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. WaFd pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. BOK Financial pays out 32.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WaFd pays out 39.5% 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. BOK Financial has increased its dividend for 19 consecutive years and WaFd has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares BOK Financial and WaFd’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BOK Financial	13.92%	9.94%	1.01%
WaFd	14.13%	9.58%	0.88%

Summary

BOK Financial beats WaFd on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BOK Financial

BOK Financial Corporation operates as the financial holding company for BOKF, NA that provides various financial products and services in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Northwest Arkansas, Colorado, Arizona, and Kansas/Missouri. It operates through three segments: Commercial Banking, Consumer Banking, and Wealth Management. The Commercial Banking segment offers lending, treasury, cash management, and customer commodity risk management products for small businesses, middle market, and larger commercial customers, as well as operates TransFund electronic funds transfer network. The Consumer Banking segment engages in the provision of retail lending and deposit services to small business customers through retail branch network; and mortgage loan origination and servicing activities. The Wealth Management segment offers fiduciary, private bank, insurance, and investment advisory services; and brokerage and trading services primarily related to providing liquidity to the mortgage markets through trading of U.S. government agency mortgage-backed securities and related derivative contracts, as well as underwrites state and municipal securities. The company also provides commercial loans, such as loans for working capital, facilities acquisition or expansion, purchases of equipment, and other needs of commercial customers; and service, healthcare, manufacturing, wholesale/retail, energy, and other sector loans. In addition, it offers commercial real estate loans for the construction of buildings or other improvements to real estate and property held by borrowers for investment purposes; residential mortgage and personal loans; and automated teller machine, call center, and Internet and mobile banking services. The company was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

About WaFd

WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts. It also provides single-family dwellings, construction, land acquisition and development, consumer lot, multi-family residential, commercial real estate, home equity, business, and consumer loans, as well as commercial and industrial loans. In addition, the company offers insurance brokerage services, such as individual and business insurance policies; holds and markets real estate properties; and debit and credit cards, as well as acts as the trustee. It serves consumers, mid-sized and large businesses, and owners and developers of commercial real estate. The company was formerly known as Washington Federal, Inc. and changed its name to WaFd, Inc in September 2023. WaFd, Inc was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.