East West Bancorp Ups 2025 NII & Revenue Outlook Amid Uncertainty

East West Bancorp, Inc. EWBC provided insight into its strategic growth amid the ongoing uncertainty at the Morgan Stanley US Financials Conference. The company’s CFO, Chris DelMoral Niles, revised its net interest income (NII) and revenue guidance for the year.

EWBC expects 2025 NII growth at or above the higher end of the previously mentioned 4-6%.

The upgraded outlook comes on the expectation that the deposit repricing done in the first quarter (that resulted in a rise in NII) will have a continued positive impact on the metric in the second quarter.

Given that the mix of non-interest-bearing and interest-bearing products has been stable despite rates remaining elevated for longer, East West Bancorp expects continued NII expansion throughout the year.

Total revenues, which were earlier projected to grow 5-7%, are now expected to rise more than 6% this year.

Coming to non-interest income, the company targets robust fee growth in 2025 through treasury deposit services and foreign exchange solutions.

In terms of the balance sheet, so far this year, EWBC has witnessed modest increases in deposits and loans, and hence, the 2025 guidance for loan growth is kept unchanged at 4-6%.

The outlook for expenses also remains unchanged. Management expects total operating non-interest expenses to increase 7-9% due to higher headcount and technological expenses, partially offset by lower expected deposit account expenses.

At the conference, Niles mentioned how its clients are managing the uncertainties surrounding tariff implementations.

Niles stated that the company’s clients “are in their ninth year of assessing how they grapple with the changing context of tariffs, the context of trade dynamics, they are ahead of these things.”

He added, “Many of them earlier on took opportunities to diversify their supply chains and move some production outside to other areas. Some moved it even to Mexico. And frankly, some moved it even to The States. And so all of that has happened.”

Thus, it has been seen that East West Bancorp’s clients have effectively managed tariff impacts over nine years by diversifying supply chains and relocating production.

In terms of returning value to shareholders, opportunistic share buybacks remain a strategic consideration for the company. In January 2025, East West Bancorp announced an additional repurchase plan of $300 million. In the first quarter of 2025, EWBC repurchased 0.9 million shares for $85 million. As of March 31, 2025, $244 million of authorization was available for repurchase.

East West Bancorp’s Price Performance & Zacks Rank

In the past year, EWBC shares have gained 34.2%, outperforming the industry’s 24.9% growth.

Currently, East West Bancorp carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Stocks to Consider

A couple of better-ranked finance stocks are Virtu Financial, Inc. VIRT and Axos Financial, Inc. AX. Both VIRT and AX currently carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Estimates for VIRT’s current-year earnings have been revised 7.9% upward in the past 60 days. The company’s shares have gained 11.6% in the past six months.

Estimates for AX’s current fiscal-year earnings have been revised 1.7% north in the past 60 days. The company’s shares have lost 9.3% in the past six months.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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