Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) Stock Price Target Raised at Barclays

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) had its price objective increased by Barclays from $22.00 to $23.00 in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on EBC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a report on Friday, August 7th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $26.00 price objective (up from $24.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research report on Monday, July 27th. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Hovde Group increased their target price on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $23.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $24.86.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Down 1.1%

EBC stock opened at $21.24 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. The company has a market capitalization of $4.85 billion, a PE ratio of 12.07 and a beta of 0.70. Eastern Bankshares has a 52 week low of $16.61 and a 52 week high of $23.77. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.21.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $316.01 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $308.20 million. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 8.71% and a net margin of 25.12%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 8th. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is currently 34.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph F. Casey sold 1,778 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.69, for a total value of $40,342.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 60,301 shares in the company, valued at $1,368,229.69. This trade represents a 2.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Donald Westermann sold 23,005 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.43, for a total transaction of $492,997.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 22,565 shares in the company, valued at approximately $483,567.95. This trade represents a 50.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 65,190 shares of company stock worth $1,452,900. Insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the 2nd quarter worth about $498,672,000. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 42.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,124,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $269,652,000 after buying an additional 3,603,128 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,548,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the second quarter worth about $38,188,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the second quarter worth about $37,479,000. 71.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Eastern Bankshares

Eastern Bankshares, Inc (NASDAQ:EBC) is the holding company for Eastern Bank, a full-service commercial bank headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1818, Eastern Bank is one of the oldest and largest mutual bank franchises in the United States before becoming a publicly traded company in 2020.

Eastern Bank provides banking and financial services to businesses, organizations, professionals and individual consumers. Its offerings include commercial and residential lending, business and personal deposit accounts, cash-management and treasury services, consumer banking, mortgage services, wealth management and investment services.

The company primarily serves communities in eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire through a network of banking offices and digital banking channels.