Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Shares Sold by ProShare Advisors LLC

ProShare Advisors LLC lowered its position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 25.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,774 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,092 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $290,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Profund Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the second quarter valued at about $150,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. raised its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 201.0% during the 2nd quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 49,647 shares of the company’s stock worth $694,000 after buying an additional 33,151 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 24.5% in the 2nd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 51,084 shares of the company’s stock worth $714,000 after acquiring an additional 10,042 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 24.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,835,761 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,599,000 after acquiring an additional 950,150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 58.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,079,028 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,065,000 after acquiring an additional 764,881 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on EBC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Eastern Bankshares from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $14.00 to $18.50 in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $19.00 target price (up previously from $17.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research note on Monday, July 29th.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Up 0.7 %

Eastern Bankshares stock opened at $16.00 on Friday. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $10.65 and a 1 year high of $17.26. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $16.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.50. The firm has a market cap of $2.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 5.06% and a net margin of 48.38%. The company had revenue of $232.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.45 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is 15.44%.

Insider Activity

In related news, President Quincy Lee Miller sold 12,676 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.66, for a total transaction of $211,182.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.