Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Position Increased by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC - Free Report) by 5.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,591,712 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 86,810 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned 0.74% of Eastern Bankshares worth $26,088,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 257,492 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,600,000 after acquiring an additional 2,320 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 10.4% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 109,722 shares of the company's stock worth $1,534,000 after acquiring an additional 10,322 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 44,452 shares of the company's stock worth $621,000 after acquiring an additional 814 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC raised its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 63,717.2% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 63,179 shares of the company's stock valued at $883,000 after purchasing an additional 63,080 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sachetta LLC bought a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the second quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Eastern Bankshares from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insider Transactions at Eastern Bankshares

In other Eastern Bankshares news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total transaction of $106,033.28. Following the sale, the director now owns 67,284 shares in the company, valued at $1,248,791.04. This represents a 7.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company's stock.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Up 0.3 %

EBC stock traded up $0.05 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $17.15. The company had a trading volume of 600,534 shares, compared to its average volume of 729,747. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 12-month low of $12.22 and a 12-month high of $19.40. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $17.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.55. The company has a market capitalization of $3.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.39 and a beta of 0.94.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.08). Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 38.00% and a return on equity of 4.49%. The business had revenue of $299.55 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $215.92 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 0.98 EPS for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a $0.12 dividend. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares's previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. Eastern Bankshares's dividend payout ratio is presently 20.69%.

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.