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

Shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the three analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $16.50.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 price objective (up previously from $17.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research note on Monday.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 8.5% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 27,866 shares of the company’s stock worth $384,000 after acquiring an additional 2,193 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 5.6% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 103,320 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,424,000 after acquiring an additional 5,481 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 18.7% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 41,330 shares of the company’s stock worth $570,000 after acquiring an additional 6,514 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the first quarter worth approximately $126,000. Finally, Tortoise Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the fourth quarter worth approximately $134,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Down 0.7 %

Eastern Bankshares stock traded down $0.11 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $16.77. 478,384 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 983,003. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.88 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.66. Eastern Bankshares has a fifty-two week low of $10.65 and a fifty-two week high of $17.26.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.22. The company had revenue of $232.72 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.45 million. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 48.38% and a return on equity of 5.14%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.28 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be paid a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.62%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.44%.

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.