Eastern Bankshares’ (EBC) “Outperform” Rating Reiterated at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) in a report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has a $22.00 price objective on the stock, up from their prior price objective of $21.00.

Eastern Bankshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:EBC opened at $18.15 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $3.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.82 and a beta of 0.94. Eastern Bankshares has a 12 month low of $12.22 and a 12 month high of $19.40. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $17.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.93.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.05. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 4.49% and a net margin of 38.00%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares will post 0.98 EPS for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.64%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 value of $106,033.28. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 67,284 shares in the company, 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 SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Eastern Bankshares

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 21.0% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 378,564 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,205,000 after buying an additional 65,764 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D acquired a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the third quarter worth about $1,943,000. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 13.4% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,969,558 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,061,000 after acquiring an additional 467,663 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 20.3% during the third 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 period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,591,712 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,088,000 after acquiring an additional 86,810 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Company 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.