East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.04 EPS

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC - Get Free Report) posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The financial services provider reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.04, Zacks reports. The company had revenue of $693.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.02 million. East West Bancorp had a net margin of 25.73% and a return on equity of 15.71%.

East West Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of EWBC traded down $0.71 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $85.26. 757,763 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 924,927. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $85.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $94.86. East West Bancorp has a 12-month low of $68.27 and a 12-month high of $113.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $11.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.09.

East West Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. East West Bancorp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling at East West Bancorp

In other news, Director Jack C. Liu sold 1,275 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.53, for a total transaction of $133,275.75. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,557 shares in the company, valued at $1,521,643.21. The trade was a 8.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dominic Ng sold 20,181 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.01, for a total transaction of $1,816,491.81. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 988,133 shares of the company's stock, valued at $88,941,851.33. This represents a 2.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 62,181 shares of company stock worth $5,625,732. Corporate insiders own 1.04% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EWBC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of East West Bancorp from $100.00 to $97.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Barclays boosted their price objective on East West Bancorp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday. DA Davidson dropped their target price on East West Bancorp from $118.00 to $100.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com downgraded East West Bancorp from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of East West Bancorp from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $118.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, East West Bancorp presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $105.46.

About East West Bancorp

East West Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for East West Bank that provides a range of personal and commercial banking services to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Consumer and Business Banking, Commercial Banking, and Other.