Royce & Associates LP Lowers Position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Royce & Associates LP cut its holdings in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 7.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 12,019 shares of the company’s stock after selling 924 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $207,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EBC. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 36.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,431,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $302,085,000 after acquiring an additional 4,913,376 shares during the period. Systematic Financial Management LP raised its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 595.7% in the third quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,730,639 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,365,000 after purchasing an additional 1,481,889 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 20.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,940,433 shares of the company’s stock worth $113,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,170,276 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 23.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,587,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,203,000 after purchasing an additional 859,136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 284.1% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 617,306 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,118,000 after purchasing an additional 456,586 shares in the last quarter. 71.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO R David Rosato bought 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $15.40 per share, for a total transaction of $154,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $308,000. This represents a 100.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Shares of Eastern Bankshares stock opened at $16.59 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.53 billion, a PE ratio of 24.76 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.34. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a one year low of $12.22 and a one year high of $19.40.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, equities analysts predict that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

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

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.