DA Davidson Predicts Stronger Earnings for East West Bancorp

East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) – Research analysts at DA Davidson increased their FY2025 earnings estimates for shares of East West Bancorp in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, April 24th. DA Davidson analyst G. Tenner now expects that the financial services provider will earn $8.76 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $8.60. DA Davidson has a “Buy” rating and a $100.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for East West Bancorp’s current full-year earnings is $8.85 per share. DA Davidson also issued estimates for East West Bancorp’s FY2026 earnings at $9.58 EPS.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on EWBC. StockNews.com downgraded shares of East West Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective 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. Morgan Stanley cut shares of East West Bancorp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $118.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of East West Bancorp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $105.46.

East West Bancorp Stock Up 0.1 %

EWBC stock opened at $86.31 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $11.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.92. East West Bancorp has a 12 month low of $68.27 and a 12 month high of $113.95. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $84.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $94.86.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.05 by $0.04. East West Bancorp had a net margin of 25.73% and a return on equity of 15.71%. The firm had revenue of $693.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $673.02 million.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,197,068 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,359,511,000 after acquiring an additional 70,503 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of East West Bancorp by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,990,468 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $765,167,000 after purchasing an additional 107,665 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,418,840 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $423,148,000 after buying an additional 186,887 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,018,504 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $289,052,000 after buying an additional 437,676 shares during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group grew its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 2,831,862 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $272,652,000 after buying an additional 183,675 shares during the period. 89.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at East West Bancorp

In other East West Bancorp news, 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 value of $1,816,491.81. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 988,133 shares in the company, valued at approximately $88,941,851.33. This represents a 2.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Jack C. Liu sold 1,275 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.53, for a total transaction of $133,275.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 14,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,521,643.21. This trade represents a 8.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 61,456 shares of company stock valued at $5,549,969. Insiders own 1.04% of the company’s stock.

East West Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 16th. Investors of record on Friday, May 2nd will be paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.78%. East West Bancorp’s payout ratio is 28.64%.

East West Bancorp Company Profile

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.