Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the three research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $15.25.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a report on Friday, January 26th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Luis Borgen sold 40,288 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.08, for a total transaction of $526,967.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 42,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $549,883.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Eastern Bankshares

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC increased its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 24.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,926,166 shares of the company’s stock valued at $124,474,000 after buying an additional 1,979,113 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 4.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,480,552 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,566,000 after acquiring an additional 66,050 shares in the last quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P. acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares during the third quarter valued at approximately $854,000. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 0.5% in the third quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 249,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,130,000 after purchasing an additional 1,184 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,367,130 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,244,000 after purchasing an additional 100,820 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Up 2.9 %

EBC opened at $12.92 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $13.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $13.10. The firm has a market cap of $2.28 billion, a PE ratio of 4.53 and a beta of 0.85. Eastern Bankshares has a twelve month low of $9.93 and a twelve month high of $15.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.03. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 49.59%. The business had revenue of $230.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.52 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.14 EPS for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is presently 15.44%.

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.