PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. vs Synchrony Financial, two Mortgage Finance stocks. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
Neither balance-sheet lender grows visibly on this page, so the multiples speak for the cycle: Synchrony at 8.1 times earnings is priced for store-card credit losses to normalize upward, PennyMac at 9.1 for mortgage volumes to normalize upward, two single-digit multiples waiting on different mean reversions. The economics are solid at both: net margins of 19.3% and 23.5%, returns on equity of 21.9% and 11.7%, dividends near 1.4%. Synchrony's 36.2% and PennyMac's negative 87.9% free-cash figures are both lender-accounting artifacts, opposite in sign, equal in meaninglessness. Two cheap, profitable, distrusted franchises; the market cannot decide which normalization arrives first, so it discounts both and collects the dividends.
Comparison updated 2026-07-10.
| Metric | PFSI | SYF |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $86.05 | $78.62 |
| Market cap | $4.6B | $27.2B |
| Sector | Financial Services | Financial Services |
| Stage | Growth | Mature |
| P/E | 9.1 | 8.1 |
| P/B | 1.07 | 1.65 |
| P/S | 2.15 | 1.46 |
| EV/EBITDA | 787.9 | 161.3 |
| Revenue growth | +26.0% | +3.1% |
| Net margin | 23.5% | 19.3% |
| Return on equity | 11.7% | 21.9% |
| Return on assets | 1.6% | 3.0% |
| Dividend yield | 1.4% | 1.5% |
| Debt / equity | 1.44 | 1.00 |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 0.36 | 0.60 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 5 / 9 | 7 / 9 |
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The stronger value is highlighted per metric where one is strictly better on that single number; it is not an overall verdict on either company. For informational and research purposes only. Not investment advice. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. boothcheck is not a registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results.