Short Interest in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Grows By 12.8%

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) was the target of a large increase in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,130,000 shares, an increase of 12.8% from the December 31st total of 3,660,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 940,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.4 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price (up previously from $21.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research note on Monday, January 27th.

Insider Activity at Eastern Bankshares

In other Eastern Bankshares news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total transaction of $106,033.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 67,284 shares in the company, valued at $1,248,791.04. The trade was a 7.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Eastern Bankshares

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of EBC. Enterprise Bank & Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Enterprise Bank & Trust Co now owns 24,234 shares of the company’s stock valued at $418,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 5,194 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,000 after buying an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 127.8% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 1,010 shares during the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 20,486 shares of the company’s stock valued at $336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amalgamated Bank boosted its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 21.1% in the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 6,595 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,000 after buying an additional 1,150 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Price Performance

Shares of Eastern Bankshares stock traded down $0.29 during trading on Monday, hitting $18.07. The stock had a trading volume of 869,158 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,012,265. The firm has a market cap of $3.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.97 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a fifty day moving average of $17.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.99. Eastern Bankshares has a fifty-two week low of $12.22 and a fifty-two week high of $19.40.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.05. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 6.02% and a net margin of 11.07%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.64%.

Eastern Bankshares Company Profile

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.