Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Stock Now Rated “Moderate Buy” by Wall Street Analysts

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $25.14.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on EBC shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded Eastern Bankshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 23rd. Weiss Ratings upgraded Eastern Bankshares from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a report on Monday. TD Cowen cut their target price on Eastern Bankshares from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 5th. DA Davidson set a $26.00 target price on Eastern Bankshares in a report on Monday, October 26th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Eastern Bankshares from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ EBC traded up $0.11 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $22.84. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,313,686 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,265,422. Eastern Bankshares has a one year low of $17.03 and a one year high of $23.78. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $21.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market cap of $5.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.13 and a beta of 0.70.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.02. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 24.04% and a return on equity of 9.37%. The business had revenue of $311.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $310.60 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 21st. Investors of record on Monday, December 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 7th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is currently 34.48%.

Insider Activity at Eastern Bankshares

In other Eastern Bankshares news, insider Donald Westermann sold 23,005 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.43, for a total value of $492,997.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 22,565 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $483,567.95. This represents a 50.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Casey sold 1,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.69, for a total transaction of $40,342.82. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 60,301 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,368,229.69. This trade represents a 2.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 65,190 shares of company stock valued at $1,452,900 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EBC. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in Eastern Bankshares during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $5,066,000. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund bought a new stake in Eastern Bankshares in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,074,000. State Street Corp lifted its position in Eastern Bankshares by 42.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,124,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $269,652,000 after acquiring an additional 3,603,128 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 25.0% in 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 period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the 2nd quarter worth $28,708,000. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Eastern Bankshares

Eastern Bankshares, Inc (NASDAQ:EBC) is the holding company for Eastern Bank, a full-service commercial bank headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1818, Eastern Bank is one of the oldest and largest mutual banks in the United States to have converted to public ownership.

Eastern Bank provides a range of personal and business banking products, including checking and savings accounts, residential and commercial real estate loans, consumer lending, commercial loans, cash-management services and online banking.