Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Shares Sold by Essex Financial Services Inc.

Essex Financial Services Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 7.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 71,477 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,751 shares during the period. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $1,233,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC raised its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 36.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,431,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,085,000 after buying an additional 4,913,376 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 23.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,587,497 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,203,000 after acquiring an additional 859,136 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,028,897 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,498,000 after purchasing an additional 59,339 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 12.5% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,339,389 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,343,000 after purchasing an additional 260,361 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price (up from $21.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a report on Monday, January 27th.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ EBC opened at $18.89 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.19 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $17.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.09. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $12.22 and a 52-week high of $19.40.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.05. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 6.02% and a net margin of 11.07%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 4th. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.64%.

Insider Transactions at Eastern Bankshares

In other Eastern Bankshares news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total transaction of $106,033.28. Following the sale, the director now owns 67,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,248,791.04. The trade was a 7.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares 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.