Vestcor Inc Purchases 737 Shares of East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC)

Vestcor Inc boosted its position in East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 11,383 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 737 shares during the quarter. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in East West Bancorp were worth $942,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EWBC. FMR LLC lifted its position in East West Bancorp by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,882,803 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $652,223,000 after purchasing an additional 136,528 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 1.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,314,994 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $439,763,000 after buying an additional 75,024 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in East West Bancorp by 2.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,231,953 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $350,152,000 after buying an additional 96,729 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in East West Bancorp by 7.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,822,886 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $133,480,000 after acquiring an additional 118,658 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in East West Bancorp by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,804,288 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $149,287,000 after acquiring an additional 123,376 shares during the period. 89.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other East West Bancorp news, Director Rudolph Estrada sold 469 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.04, for a total transaction of $45,980.76. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,740,210. The trade was a 2.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas Paul Krause sold 12,000 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 45,403 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,840,413.83. This represents a 20.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 23,969 shares of company stock worth $2,458,276. 1.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EWBC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Compass Point increased their price target on East West Bancorp from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Truist Financial increased their target price on East West Bancorp from $93.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded East West Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on East West Bancorp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $103.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.17.

East West Bancorp Price Performance

NASDAQ EWBC opened at $103.11 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.92. East West Bancorp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $67.03 and a 52-week high of $113.95. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $99.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $85.45. The stock has a market cap of $14.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.02, a PEG ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.28.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last posted 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. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $641.80 million. East West Bancorp had a net margin of 24.96% and a return on equity of 16.07%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. Analysts anticipate that East West Bancorp, Inc. will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

East West Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were given a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.13%. East West Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.78%.

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.