Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Increases Dividend to $0.12 Per Share

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 24th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.12 per share on Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. This is a boost from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11.

Eastern Bankshares has a dividend payout ratio of 30.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Eastern Bankshares to earn $1.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.8%.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:EBC traded down $0.80 during trading on Friday, reaching $15.92. The stock had a trading volume of 1,549,827 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,005,237. Eastern Bankshares has a 52 week low of $10.65 and a 52 week high of $17.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.59 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.87.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.08). Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 5.06% and a net margin of 48.38%. The company had revenue of $299.55 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $215.92 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Quincy Lee Miller sold 12,676 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.66, for a total value of $211,182.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on EBC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Eastern Bankshares from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $14.00 to $18.50 in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 price target (up previously from $17.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a report on Monday, July 29th.

About Eastern Bankshares

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.