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East West Bancorp

EWBC on Nasdaq. East West Bancorp sells loans, deposits and other banking services to people and businesses. Market value $17.4bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Some use the latest annual report instead, as marked. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.

Cash flow or capital spending isn't reported, so free cash flow is unknown.

Should I look at this?

Worth a closer look

Why it could be worth it

What to watch out for

Nothing stood out in the numbers we check.

Read what could go wrong

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Return on equity
five annual reports to December 2025
15.9%five-year median

Yearly profit per dollar of owners' money: 16 cents. Above 10 is good.

Price to book
quarterly report to June 2026
1.9×

What you pay for each dollar of net assets: $1.88.

Earnings yield
past 12 months to June 2026
8.3%

Profit per $100 you pay: $8.30.

Quality score: 100 of 100. Price score: 77 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$127.12 a share, 37% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $92.67 to $137.47.

Dividend: 1.9% a year

Paid every year for at least 5 years

Payouts have jumped around in recent years, so this may not repeat.

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
20212022202320242025
Revenue
n/an/an/an/an/a
Operating margin
n/an/an/an/an/a
Debt to equity
n/an/an/an/an/a
Shares outstanding
0.14bn0.14bn0.14bn0.14bn0.14bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positiveDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
  • Accounting checksDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
  • DebtDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
  • Revenue growth, five yearsUnknown
  • Buying back its own sharesYes, 3% fewer since 2021

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Profit: $364 million, up 17% on a year ago.
  • About the same number of shares as a year ago.
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$299m
December 2024$293m
March 2025$290m
June 2025$310m
September 2025$368m
December 2025$356m
March 2026$358m
June 2026$364m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
27 February 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
6 November 2026

Who owns it

4 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 3 last quarter. 652 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26
Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

2 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 9 sold $27m.

  • Alvarez Manuel Pham
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    8 September 2026
    Shares
    810
    Price
    $130.40
    Value
    $105,624
  • LIU JACK C
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    12 August 2026
    Shares
    1,000
    Price
    $135.02
    Value
    $135,020
  • KRAUSE DOUGLAS PAUL
    Vice Chairman
    Sold
    Date
    6 August 2026
    Shares
    10,000
    Price
    $132.37
    Value
    $1m
  • Oh Irene H
    Chief Risk Officer
    Sold
    Date
    15 June 2026
    Shares
    800
    Price
    $133.19
    Value
    $106,552
  • Oh Irene H
    Chief Risk Officer
    Sold
    Date
    12 June 2026
    Shares
    500
    Price
    $132.50
    Value
    $66,250
  • Oh Irene H
    Chief Risk Officer
    Sold
    Date
    11 June 2026
    Shares
    11,211
    Price
    $129.00
    Value
    $1m
  • KRAUSE DOUGLAS PAUL
    Vice Chairman
    Sold
    Date
    27 May 2026
    Shares
    10,000
    Price
    $123.50
    Value
    $1m
  • NG DOMINIC
    Chief Executive Officer, Director
    Sold
    Date
    6 May 2026
    Shares
    30,000
    Price
    $125.31
    Value
    $4m
  • NG DOMINIC
    Chief Executive Officer, Director
    Sold
    Date
    5 May 2026
    Shares
    30,000
    Price
    $123.49
    Value
    $4m
  • Deskus Archana
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    30 April 2026
    Shares
    1,800
    Price
    $125.55
    Value
    $225,990

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 27 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 7 Aug 2026 and 3 later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

What changed in the risks this year

Companies must list what could hurt them each year. These are the parts that changed since last year’s report.

  • Changes to fiscal policies and tax legislation may adversely affect our business.

    Could happen
    In July 2025, the OBBBA was signed into law, introducing significant tax changes. The OBBBA extends or makes permanent various tax provisions that were originally enacted in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and were set to expire at the end of 2025. The OBBBA features modified versions of individual and business tax relief proposals, and other new tax relief measures. In addition, it includes various revenue-raising measures, including certain changes to the Inflation Reduction Act and various limits on business and individual tax deductions, that are intended to offset part of the cost of the legislation. We are currently evaluating the impact of the OBBBA on our business and future tax strategies.
    Read more

  • We may be subject to increased credit risk and higher credit losses to the extent our loans are concentrated by loan type, industry segment, borrower type, or location of the borrower or collateral.

    Could happen
    A portion of our lending portfolio is made to non-depository financial institutions to fund their lending activities. Adverse conditions affecting these entities or broader market conditions could result in increased credit risk to us. In addition, a downturn in sectors served by these institutions could increase credit risk to us and negatively impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
    Read more

Read it in the annual report

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.