Westover Capital Advisors LLC Invests $209,000 in East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC)

Westover Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 2,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of East West Bancorp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Grove Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in shares of East West Bancorp by 448.9% in the 1st quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 516 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of East West Bancorp by 89.7% in the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 518 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares during the period. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda purchased a new position in shares of East West Bancorp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $100,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of East West Bancorp by 126.8% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,277 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $113,000 after purchasing an additional 714 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.53% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at East West Bancorp

In related news, CEO Dominic Ng sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.43, for a total transaction of $3,857,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 928,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $89,517,319.02. This represents a 4.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Lisa L. Kim sold 2,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.04, for a total value of $199,584.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 14,849 shares in the company, valued at $1,411,248.96. This represents a 12.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EWBC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded East West Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Morgan Stanley cut East West Bancorp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $118.00 to $90.00 in a report on Monday, April 7th. Barclays boosted their price objective on East West Bancorp from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on East West Bancorp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on East West Bancorp from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.15.

East West Bancorp Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ EWBC opened at $103.61 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $98.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $93.61. The firm has a market cap of $14.28 billion, a PE ratio of 12.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.93. East West Bancorp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $68.27 and a twelve month high of $113.95.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.23 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $705.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $702.04 million. East West Bancorp had a return on equity of 15.09% and a net margin of 26.06%. East West Bancorp’s revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.07 EPS. Analysts expect that East West Bancorp, Inc. will post 8.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

East West Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th will be given a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. East West Bancorp’s payout ratio is 28.04%.

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.