Legal & General Group Plc Trims Stock Holdings in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC - Free Report) by 7.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 204,009 shares of the company's stock after selling 17,047 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.10% of Eastern Bankshares worth $3,519,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 69.5% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 9,246 shares of the company's stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 3,791 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the 4th quarter valued at $172,000. RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the fourth quarter worth $178,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the third quarter valued at about $220,000. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated 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 at Eastern Bankshares

In other news, CFO R David Rosato bought 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $15.40 per share, with a total value of $154,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,000 shares in the company, valued at $308,000. This 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 accessible through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EBC traded down $1.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $14.77. The stock had a trading volume of 4,053,356 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,079,405. The company's 50 day moving average price is $16.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.15. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a twelve month low of $12.54 and a twelve month high of $19.40. The firm has a market cap of $3.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.04 and a beta of 0.96.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.01. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 6.02% and a net margin of 11.07%. The company had revenue of $222.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $226.98 million. Equities analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.52%. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Eastern Bankshares's dividend payout ratio is 71.64%.

Eastern Bankshares Company Profile

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.