Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) Reaches New 12-Month High – Here’s What Happened

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $19.29 and last traded at $19.23, with a volume of 68316 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $18.83.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on EBC shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 price target (up previously from $17.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research report on Monday, July 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Eastern Bankshares from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $18.50 in a report on Tuesday, August 6th.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $17.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $15.59. The stock has a market cap of $4.11 billion, a PE ratio of 8.12 and a beta of 0.89.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $299.55 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $215.92 million. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 38.00% and a return on equity of 4.49%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is currently 18.97%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Quincy Lee Miller sold 12,676 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.66, for a total transaction of $211,182.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Eastern Bankshares

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Eastern Bankshares in the 1st quarter valued at $126,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 18.7% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 41,330 shares of the company’s stock worth $570,000 after buying an additional 6,514 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 5.6% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 103,320 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,424,000 after acquiring an additional 5,481 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 11.8% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,795,493 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,300,000 after purchasing an additional 401,027 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the first quarter worth $182,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

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.