Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (EBC) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 3rd

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.12 per share on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd.

Eastern Bankshares has increased its dividend payment by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years. Eastern Bankshares has a dividend payout ratio of 32.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Eastern Bankshares to earn $1.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.6%.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ EBC opened at $17.85 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.69 and a beta of 0.94. Eastern Bankshares has a twelve month low of $12.22 and a twelve month high of $19.40. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $17.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.86.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.05. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 38.00% and a return on equity of 4.49%. As a group, research analysts predict that Eastern Bankshares will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total value of $106,033.28. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 67,284 shares in the company, valued at $1,248,791.04. This trade represents 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. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Eastern Bankshares from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

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.