Eastern Bankshares’ (EBC) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has a $22.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $21.00.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of EBC opened at $18.15 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.82 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s 50 day moving average is $17.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.93. Eastern Bankshares has a 52-week low of $12.22 and a 52-week high of $19.40.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.05. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 38.00% and a return on equity of 4.49%. On average, equities analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares will post 0.98 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 Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 4th. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is currently 20.69%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Eastern Bankshares news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total value of $106,033.28. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 67,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,248,791.04. This trade represents a 7.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Eastern Bankshares

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of EBC. Swiss National Bank grew its position in Eastern Bankshares by 21.0% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 378,564 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,205,000 after purchasing an additional 65,764 shares during the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D bought a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,943,000. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,969,558 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,061,000 after buying an additional 467,663 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,940,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $113,754,000 after acquiring an additional 1,170,276 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,591,712 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,088,000 after acquiring an additional 86,810 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Company Profile

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.