Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) Director Joseph Casey Sells 10,000 Shares of Stock

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Director Joseph Casey sold 10,000 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.72, for a total value of $227,200.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 62,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,410,434.88. This represents a 13.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of Eastern Bankshares stock opened at $22.36 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $22.55 and a 200-day moving average of $20.95. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.50 and a 52-week high of $23.77. The stock has a market cap of $5.11 billion, a PE ratio of 12.70 and a beta of 0.68.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.03. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 8.71% and a net margin of 25.12%.The firm had revenue of $316.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $308.20 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.88 EPS for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.09%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Eastern Bankshares

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,874,030 shares of the company’s stock worth $403,138,000 after acquiring an additional 2,440,017 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 249.9% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,810,225 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,362,000 after acquiring an additional 1,292,857 shares during the last quarter. Algebris UK Ltd. increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 21.8% during the 4th quarter. Algebris UK Ltd. now owns 624,471 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,514,000 after purchasing an additional 111,811 shares during the period. Minerva Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Eastern Bankshares during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,153,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 25.0% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,447,779 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,319,000 after purchasing an additional 289,458 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on EBC. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $26.00 price target (up from $24.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a report on Monday, July 27th. Stephens lowered Eastern Bankshares from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $24.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Hovde Group lifted their target price on Eastern Bankshares from $23.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Eastern Bankshares from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Eastern Bankshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Eastern Bankshares presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.86.

About Eastern Bankshares

Eastern Bankshares, Inc is the bank holding company for Eastern Bank, one of the oldest and largest mutual banks in the United States. Founded in 1818 as Salem Savings Bank and later rebranded as Eastern Bank in 1989, the company preserved its mutual ownership structure for more than two centuries. In March 2020, it completed an initial public offering and began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker EBC, while continuing to emphasize its community-focused heritage.

Through its primary subsidiary, Eastern Bank, the company delivers a broad range of commercial and consumer banking products.