Royce & Associates LP Sells 924 Shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Royce & Associates LP lowered its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 7.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,019 shares of the company’s stock after selling 924 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $207,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Swiss National Bank raised its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 381,764 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,585,000 after buying an additional 3,200 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 57.5% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 59,206 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,021,000 after buying an additional 21,621 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 20.6% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 49,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $858,000 after purchasing an additional 8,506 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Eastern Bankshares in the fourth quarter worth $311,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Eastern Bankshares in the fourth quarter worth $277,000. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO R David Rosato acquired 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $15.40 per share, with a total value of $154,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $308,000. This represents a 100.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.15% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Shares of EBC opened at $16.59 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $17.58 and its 200 day moving average is $17.34. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $12.22 and a fifty-two week high of $19.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.53 billion, a PE ratio of 24.76 and a beta of 0.95.

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

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is 71.64%.

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.