Chung Wu Investment Group LLC Buys Shares of 300 East West Bancorp, Inc. $EWBC

Chung Wu Investment Group LLC bought a new stake in East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $30,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in East West Bancorp by 155.6% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,714,661 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $692,468,000 after purchasing an additional 4,696,157 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in East West Bancorp by 7.1% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,733,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $424,843,000 after purchasing an additional 314,262 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in East West Bancorp by 1.2% in the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,005,394 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $359,525,000 after purchasing an additional 46,717 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 2.0% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,701,640 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $152,739,000 after acquiring an additional 32,855 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of East West Bancorp during the first quarter worth $137,390,000. Institutional investors own 89.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on EWBC shares. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of East West Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $102.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $111.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, East West Bancorp currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $120.53.

East West Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of EWBC opened at $107.45 on Tuesday. East West Bancorp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $68.27 and a 12 month high of $113.95. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $104.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $96.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.55, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.23 by $0.05. East West Bancorp had a net margin of 26.06% and a return on equity of 15.09%. The business had revenue of $705.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $702.04 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.07 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that East West Bancorp, Inc. will post 8.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

East West Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. East West Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at East West Bancorp

In other East West Bancorp news, CEO Dominic Ng sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.38, for a total value of $4,135,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 888,314 shares in the company, valued at $91,833,901.32. This trade represents a 4.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Jack C. Liu sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 14,974 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,572,270. This represents a 6.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 70,240 shares of company stock worth $7,379,678. Company insiders own 1.04% of the company’s stock.

About East West Bancorp

East West Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for East West Bank that provides a range of personal and commercial banking services to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Consumer and Business Banking, Commercial Banking, and Other.