Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Stock Rated “Moderate Buy” by Sell-Side Analysts

Shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $24.86.

Several research firms have recently issued reports on EBC. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a report on Friday, August 7th. Hovde Group raised their price objective on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $23.50 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Eastern Bankshares from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped 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. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 5th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Donald Westermann sold 23,005 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.43, for a total value of $492,997.15. Following the transaction, the insider owned 22,565 shares in the company, valued at $483,567.95. This trade represents a 50.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Casey sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.72, for a total value of $227,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 62,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,410,434.88. This trade represents a 13.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 65,190 shares of company stock worth $1,452,900. 1.26% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Eastern Bankshares

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 3,603,128 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,290,830 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,708,000 after purchasing an additional 6,203 shares during the last quarter. Nykredit A S bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the second quarter worth approximately $77,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in Eastern Bankshares during the 2nd quarter valued at $309,000. Finally, Two Sigma Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the second quarter valued at $380,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Down 0.8%

Eastern Bankshares stock traded down $0.17 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $20.97. The stock had a trading volume of 122,131 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,485,606. Eastern Bankshares has a fifty-two week low of $16.61 and a fifty-two week high of $23.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.79 billion, a PE ratio of 11.91 and a beta of 0.70. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 25.12% and a return on equity of 8.71%. The firm had revenue of $316.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $308.20 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis 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%.

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.