East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) to Issue $0.55 Quarterly Dividend

East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.55 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, May 17th. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.92%.

East West Bancorp has raised its dividend payment by an average of 20.4% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 4 consecutive years. East West Bancorp has a payout ratio of 26.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect East West Bancorp to earn $8.20 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.8%.

East West Bancorp Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of EWBC opened at $75.30 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $74.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.28. The stock has a market cap of $10.48 billion, a PE ratio of 9.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.39. East West Bancorp has a 12 month low of $41.12 and a 12 month high of $79.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $654.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $641.91 million. East West Bancorp had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 29.11%. East West Bancorp’s quarterly revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.37 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that East West Bancorp will post 7.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on EWBC. Compass Point boosted their price objective on East West Bancorp from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on East West Bancorp from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Truist Financial upped their target price on East West Bancorp from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of East West Bancorp in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on East West Bancorp from $86.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other East West Bancorp news, Director Molly Campbell sold 1,625 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.26, for a total value of $125,547.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 10,321 shares in the company, valued at $797,400.46. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other East West Bancorp news, Director Jack C. Liu sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $147,160.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 16,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,231,655.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Molly Campbell sold 1,625 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.26, for a total value of $125,547.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,321 shares in the company, valued at approximately $797,400.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.91% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

East West Bancorp Company 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.