TD Cowen Cuts Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) Price Target to $25.00

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) had its price objective reduced by TD Cowen from $26.00 to $25.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

EBC has been the subject of a number of other reports. Hovde Group raised their price objective on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $23.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Stephens downgraded shares of Eastern Bankshares from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $24.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Eastern Bankshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 23rd. Seaport Research Partners reissued a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $24.86.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Down 1.6%

NASDAQ EBC opened at $20.86 on Monday. Eastern Bankshares has a 12 month low of $16.61 and a 12 month high of $23.77. The stock has a market cap of $4.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.85 and a beta of 0.70. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $22.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

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

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 8th. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.09%.

Insider Transactions at Eastern Bankshares

In other news, Director Joseph F. Casey sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.72, for a total transaction of $227,200.00. Following the sale, the director owned 62,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,410,434.88. This trade represents a 13.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Donald Westermann sold 23,005 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.43, for a total transaction of $492,997.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 22,565 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $483,567.95. This represents a 50.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 65,190 shares of company stock valued at $1,452,900. 1.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Eastern Bankshares in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $498,672,000. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 42.3% during the 2nd 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. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 28.9% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 6,846,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,912,000 after buying an additional 1,535,094 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 2nd quarter worth $38,188,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 2nd quarter worth $37,479,000. 71.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.