Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Shares Purchased by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 5.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,591,712 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 86,810 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $26,088,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EBC. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 127.8% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 1,010 shares during the last quarter. PFS Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Sachetta LLC acquired a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the 3rd quarter worth about $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Eastern Bankshares

In other Eastern Bankshares news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the company’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 transaction, the director now directly owns 67,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,248,791.04. This represents a 7.83 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of Eastern Bankshares stock opened at $17.10 on Wednesday. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a twelve month low of $12.22 and a twelve month high of $19.40. The stock has a market cap of $3.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.37 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $17.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.55.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.08). Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 4.49% and a net margin of 38.00%. The company had revenue of $299.55 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.92 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.32 EPS. Analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This is a boost from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.69%.

Eastern Bankshares 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.