Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Short Interest Down 12.3% in March

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC - Get Free Report) saw a large decrease in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,560,000 shares, a decrease of 12.3% from the February 28th total of 5,200,000 shares. Currently, 2.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,140,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.0 days.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Down 2.8 %

EBC stock traded down $0.42 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $14.49. 1,990,058 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,043,613. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.34. Eastern Bankshares has a 1-year low of $12.22 and a 1-year high of $19.40. The company has a market cap of $3.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.63 and a beta of 0.96.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.05. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 6.02% and a net margin of 11.07%. Equities research analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Eastern Bankshares's dividend payout ratio is presently 71.64%.

Remove Ads

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $22.00 price target (up from $21.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO R David Rosato bought 10,000 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $15.40 per share, for a total transaction of $154,000.00. Following the purchase, 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 ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Eastern Bankshares

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,122,356 shares of the company's stock worth $347,111,000 after buying an additional 90,293 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,786,337 shares of the company's stock valued at $324,064,000 after acquiring an additional 355,262 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 20.3% in the third 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 last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,932,470 shares of the company's stock worth $119,585,000 after purchasing an additional 259,476 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 23.3% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,080,479 shares of the company's stock worth $87,638,000 after purchasing an additional 960,591 shares during the last quarter. 71.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.