Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Short Interest Update

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,430,000 shares, a decrease of 7.5% from the August 15th total of 3,710,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,240,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, President Quincy Lee Miller sold 12,676 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.66, for a total transaction of $211,182.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eastern Bankshares

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of EBC. Sachetta LLC purchased a new stake in Eastern Bankshares during the 2nd quarter worth about $35,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Eastern Bankshares during the 2nd quarter worth about $85,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Eastern Bankshares during the 1st quarter worth about $126,000. Tortoise Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Eastern Bankshares during the 4th quarter worth about $134,000. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Eastern Bankshares during the 2nd quarter worth about $150,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on EBC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 price objective (up from $17.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a report on Monday, July 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Eastern Bankshares from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $14.00 to $18.50 in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ:EBC traded up $0.23 on Thursday, reaching $16.97. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 525,649 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,006,625. Eastern Bankshares has a 12-month low of $10.65 and a 12-month high of $17.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The firm has a market cap of $3.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.87 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $16.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.27.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.22. The firm had revenue of $232.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.45 million. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 5.06% and a net margin of 48.38%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.59%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.44%.

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.