Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Short Interest Update

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,200,000 shares, a growth of 19.5% from the February 13th total of 4,350,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,000,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.2 days. Approximately 2.5% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Eastern Bankshares Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ EBC traded down $0.03 on Tuesday, hitting $16.38. 1,064,668 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 976,429. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $17.60 and a 200 day moving average of $17.35. Eastern Bankshares has a twelve month low of $12.22 and a twelve month high of $19.40. The company has a market capitalization of $3.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.45 and a beta of 0.95.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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, equities research analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.93%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is 71.64%.

Insider Activity at Eastern Bankshares

In other Eastern Bankshares news, CFO R David Rosato purchased 10,000 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $15.40 per share, with a total value of $154,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $308,000. This trade represents a 100.00 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Eastern Bankshares

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Swiss National Bank raised its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 21.0% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 378,564 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,205,000 after purchasing an additional 65,764 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,969,558 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,061,000 after purchasing an additional 467,663 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D acquired a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,943,000. State Street Corp increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,940,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $113,754,000 after acquiring an additional 1,170,276 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,591,712 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,088,000 after acquiring an additional 86,810 shares during the period. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.