Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.05 EPS

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.05, Zacks reports. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 4.49% and a net margin of 38.00%.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:EBC opened at $17.85 on Friday. Eastern Bankshares has a 52 week low of $12.22 and a 52 week high of $19.40. The firm has a market cap of $3.83 billion, a PE ratio of 7.69 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $17.75 and its 200-day moving average is $16.84.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is currently 20.69%.

Insider Activity at Eastern Bankshares

In related news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 67,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,248,791.04. The trade was a 7.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Eastern Bankshares from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th.

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.