Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $18.56, but opened at $17.77. Eastern Bankshares shares last traded at $18.61, with a volume of 63,286 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EBC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Eastern Bankshares from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $14.00 to $18.50 in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $19.00 price target (up previously from $17.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research report on Monday, July 29th.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Down 1.4 %

The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $16.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $15.33. The firm has a market cap of $3.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.00 and a beta of 0.89.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted its quarterly 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). The firm had revenue of $299.55 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.92 million. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 4.49% and a net margin of 38.00%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. This is a boost from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.62%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.69%.

Insider Activity

In other Eastern Bankshares news, President Quincy Lee Miller sold 12,676 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.66, for a total transaction of $211,182.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EBC. FMR LLC grew its position in Eastern Bankshares by 36.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,431,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,085,000 after acquiring an additional 4,913,376 shares during the period. Eastern Bank acquired a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 3rd quarter valued at about $23,849,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 24.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,835,761 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,599,000 after purchasing an additional 950,150 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 58.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,079,028 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,065,000 after purchasing an additional 764,881 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. purchased a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,717,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

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.