Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,355 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 483 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in East West Bancorp were worth $443,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital Research Global Investors bought a new position in shares of East West Bancorp during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $338,142,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,822,886 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $133,480,000 after purchasing an additional 118,658 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of East West Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $59,460,000. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY increased its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 30.6% during the 2nd quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 649,708 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $47,578,000 after purchasing an additional 152,334 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its position in East West Bancorp by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 617,265 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $45,202,000 after acquiring an additional 3,588 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.53% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other East West Bancorp news, Director Rudolph Estrada sold 469 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.04, for a total value of $45,980.76. Following the sale, the director now owns 17,750 shares in the company, valued at $1,740,210. The trade was a 2.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas Paul Krause sold 12,000 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.61, for a total value of $1,279,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 45,403 shares in the company, valued at $4,840,413.83. This represents a 20.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 25,969 shares of company stock worth $2,625,276 over the last quarter. 1.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

East West Bancorp Stock Up 1.2 %

East West Bancorp stock opened at $105.50 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $14.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.27. East West Bancorp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $60.34 and a 52 week high of $107.68. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $90.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $81.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.06 by $0.03. East West Bancorp had a return on equity of 16.07% and a net margin of 24.96%. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $641.80 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that East West Bancorp, Inc. will post 8.36 earnings per share for the current year.

East West Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were given a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.09%. East West Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on EWBC. Stephens upped their price objective on East West Bancorp from $91.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on East West Bancorp from $100.00 to $107.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on East West Bancorp from $97.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Compass Point upped their price objective on East West Bancorp from $93.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on East West Bancorp from $108.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $102.25.

East West Bancorp Profile

East West Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for East West Bank that provides a range of personal and commercial banking services to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Consumer and Business Banking, Commercial Banking, and Other.